Moises Henriques questions Chahal's place as Jadeja's concussion substitute

Continuous Abuse of Sanjay Manjrekar is Petty, It Has to Stop!

We know how much Indians love cricket. But as the extremely high number of crimes committed by jilted lovers in this country shows, intense passion could manifest itself in perverse forms. This applies to cricket fans also. The love Indians have for the game of cricket is admirable, except when it leads to behaviour that is lacking in grace and dignity. One's mind goes back to the booing of Lasith Malinga at Wankhede Stadium in 2011. His crime was doing his job and getting the wickets of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar in the World Cup final. Malinga, a bowler who played without a scowl or foul temper, apparently, had become hateful just for doing what he is supposed to. Something similar has been going on in India for more than an year. Sanjay Manjrekar, former India batsman and a leading commentator, has been repeatedly trolled in social media. What really about Manjrekar angers cricket fans is unclear. Of late, it has been his supposed tiff with Ravindra Jadeja that originated during the World Cup 2019. Despite Manjrekar humbly accepting that he was wrong in his assessment of Jadeja, Indian fans have been continuously abusing and insulting the broadcaster. On Friday, after India's victory where Jadeja starred with the bat, there was again a spike in mentions of Manjrekar on Twitter. Again, Indian fans were doing their best to mock the former India batter. This has to stop! Manjrekar has been a dedicated commentator who has covered cricket as a broadcaster for more than two decades. One can have a divergent view as to how good or bad he is at his job, but to continuously ridicule a man is downright petty. Besides, far from being biased against Jadeja, Manjrekar over the years has been among his biggest admirers. Besides, which commentator hasn't been occassionally wrong about a player or two in his broadcasting career. The late Dean Jones once remarked that he thinks Ajantha Mendis will pick up 600 wickets in his international career, Ravi Shastri kept asserting that Suresh Raina's short-ball problem is only temporary. There are multiple examples. Also, what exactly has the former Mumbai batsman done to continuously draw this opprobrium. Is it that he is meticulous in his commentary? Is it because he has an independent mind and, unlike a Harsha Bhogle, doesn't shape his views to stay on the good side of public opinion? Is it because he doesn't fill his commentary with anodyne comments. Some may argue that he was an ordinary player in his day, so doesn't have the right to criticize others. This view just doesn't hold up. By that logic, neither Akash Chopra nor many of his colleagues have the right to criticize anyone, and certainly not Harsha Bhogle! And for those who think Manjrekar was an average batsman, here are some facts for you. He scored a hundred in West Indies, on the fastest wicket of the region - Barbados - against a bowling attack that included Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, and Ian Bishop. For all his bat-twirling, Jadeja hasn't come remotely close to facing such an attack on such a surface. On India's tour of Pakistan, in 1989 - Sachin's debut series, Majrekar raked up more than 500 runs in the series. It was that performance which earned him the moniker - The Wall - before Rahul Dravid earned it later. He was, in that sense, the Proto-Wall before the arrival of the actual Wall. To mock and ridicule such a player continuously shows, not just a lack of respect, but lack of manners. In 2013, when England toured Australia for the Ashes, an overzealous Australian newspaper decided that it won't publish Broad's name because of him not walking during the previous series, in England. That was obviously an act of imbecile petulence. So is continuously making fun of a completely respectable commentator without any provocation.

Ravindra Jadeja Ruled Out of Rest of T20I Series Due to Concussion

After his controversial absence during Australia's innings in the first T20I of the three-match series between India and Australia, Ravindra Jadeja has been declared unfit for the remaining two matches. India have declared Shardul Thakur as the replacement for the all-rounder. A formal statement from BCCI stated: "The diagnosis was confirmed based on a clinical assessment in the dressing room during the innings break by the BCCI Medical Team." The concussion which forced Jadeja to be replaced by Yuzvendra Chahal as the concussion substitute has, apparently, been more serious than initially imagined. Jadeja was hit on the helmet by a Mitchell Starc bouncer in the final over of India's innings. He continued to bat and added a vital nine more runs to the innings. However, when the news of the all-rounder being replaced midway through the game was communicated to Australian camp, it brought on a furious reaction from the team's coach Justin Langer. He was seen arguing animatedly with match refereee David Boon. The issue didn't escalate as Aussie captain Aaron Finch didn't question it during the post-match presentation ceremony and expressed his approval of the medical examination that judged Jadeja to be concussed. The protests are going to die down completely with the injury having been judged serious enough to deny the in-form player's services to the team. Shardul came back into the Indian side for the third and final ODI at Canberra, where he picked up three crucial wickets in an impressive performance. Even though he isn't an all-rounder like Jadeja, his bowling prowess has been deemed valuable enough by the Indian team management to get him back in the squad. However, Jadeja's absence will hurt India's chances as it was his batting that proved to be the difference between both teams in the first T20I as well as the last ODI. In the first match of the ongoing series, he scored an unbeated 44 off just 23 balls to give India a target they successfully defended.

AUS vs IND 1st T20: What Experts said as India wins series opener amid concussion substitute row

It was a game that was marred by the controversy around the concussion substitutes and yet India, the team trailing in the first innings,m before the Jadeja storm, came back strong after the powerplays in the second innings to hand the Aussies an 11 run defeat at Manuka Oval. If Ravindra Jadeja was the difference with the bat, his concussion substitute Yuzvendra Chahal turned out to be with the ball. However, the works of T. Natarajan with the ball, especially him taking the all-important wicket of Glenn Maxwell And Sanju Samson’s brilliant catch to dismiss a potential and proven game-changer Steven Smith were as consequential as Jadeja’s or Chahal’s performance. Captains' Viewpoints It was obvious that Concussion was going to be a burning issue and the Indian skipper was seen addressing that as his first question in the post-match presentation. Virat Kohli, while explaining the substitution said, “Jaddu got a knock on the side of the head and was a bit dizzy and still is.” Saying that playing Chahal was never in the plans, Kohli did attribute to him the credit for India’s comeback in the second innings. “Concussion replacements are a strange thing, today it worked for us maybe another time he wouldn't have found a like-for-like. He came in and bowled really well. The pitch offered him enough,” Kohli said. The Indian team showed character to fight back and the skipper too acknowledged it. However, he was not shy of letting it be known that at some places they were lucky as well. “The batters offered us a few wickets. That is T20 cricket for you. In Australia, you need to play hard and show intensity till the end,” the 32-year-old concluded. Standing on the losing side for two games in a row, Aaron Finch revealed that he too has got some niggle but also said that it would be resolved before the first game. “It got progressively worse as the game went on,” Finch said about his hip injury. Speaking about the concussion substitute, Finch said, “Their doctor had ruled Jadeja out due to a concussion. You can't be challenging a medical expert's opinion.” Talking about the reasons for the loss, Finch said, “We probably leaked too many runs at the death. Then while chasing, we didn't hit too many boundaries in the 6-over period.” Expert Opinion The concussion substitute became too large an issue that it was difficult to get other things into focus. But most of the experts, even while talking about the controversial substitute call, praised the likes of Jadeja, Natarajan, and Chahal. D'Arcy Short stayed at the wicket for the longest time and yet he was not able to see the team through exposing his weakness at playing spin. Freddie Wilde, an English cricket analyst pointed it out saying that the Australian team would have to look at other options, which are good in sub-continental conditions for the Kangaroos World Cup campaign. Boria Majumdar, the Indian TV host, and cricket expert was full of praises for the Indian pacer Natarajan and how he has evolved over time to become a force in the Indian lineup. He even went on to say that Natarajan would be a crucial fidel in India's 2021 T20 World Cup campaign. Sambit Bal, editor of a well-known cricket website and a known cricket expert called for a change in the concussion substitute rule, but at the same time termed India correct in its use of the law as concussion cases are reported late as well. Cricketer turned Pundit of the game, Aakash Chopra saw the funny side of the concussion saying that Indian is having the best of both worlds. As with the tradition, no experts opinion piece is complete without a 'pun'-tastic one from Gaurav Kalra, the Broadcast cricket journalist. Only this time, his tweet was a rather straight forward 'substitute' used in place of his hilarious one-liners. The bandwagon of cricket would now move back to Sydney for the second as well as the 3rd and final T20I of the series, where Australia would look to find their lost touch and extend the series to the third T20I.

AUS vs IND | 1st T20: Jadeja, his substitute Chahal hand India winning momentum

India defeated Australia by 11 runs on the back of a strong bowling performance in Canberra. Chasing a modest total of 162 runs, the hosts were off to a decent start with both openers D’arcy Short and Aaron Finch looking to maximise the powerplay overs. On the contrary, India openers were off to a sluggish start as both KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan struggled to find boundaries at the start of the innings. When Virat Kohli dropped Short in the seventh over, it all looked like the ghosts of the ODI series will come back to haunt the men in blue but Yuzvendra Chahal who got into the game as a concussion substitute after Ravindra Jadeja was got hit from Mitchell Starc in the final over while batting. Chahal was on the money straight away as he lured Aaron Finch into a big shot with his typical floaty leg-spinning delivery outside the line of his stump. Finch could not time the ball and Pandya made sure that the catch-dropping spree of the team had to end right there. Virat Kohli who captained both Chahal and Washington Sundar was aware of the challenges the spinning duo could pose to the Aussie batting line up and he tried to squeeze them towards a surging required rate. Sundar, Chahal and Natarajan bowled immaculate lengths to deny Australia any sense of momentum in the middle overs as the hosts could hit only one boundary in the overs between seven to 12th. Chahal’s impact on the game was telling as he finished with three wickets at the end of his for over quota and he justified that grimaces of Australian head coach Justin Langer when the match referee David Boon had informed him that India were to bring him at the place of Jadeja in between the innings. If Pandya’s catch to dismiss Finch was good, Samson sprinted from the deep-mid wicket position and dived forward to take a stunner to see the back of Steve Smith who was looking ominous after hitting a six off Deepak Chahar when the pace missed the length of a slower short ball. T Natarajan has been on an unforgettable tour and he is yet to set a foot wrong. On the day when India did not have a huge score to defend and an assault from Maxwell could have seen them lose the game, he cut back a delivery from the line of the stumps to find Maxwell trapped inside the crease and in front of the stumps. The review showed the ball would have crashed into the stumps and with that India were well and truly back into the game with the required rate touching 10 runs per over. Needing 58 runs from 36 balls, Short, who could manage only 32 runs off 35 balls till and was playing an uncharacteristic inning had to go big every ball and Natarajan was smart enough to deny him the perfect bounce and pace by bowling a cross-seam delivery that the left-hander failed to time and Pandya was waiting patiently at the long-on boundary to send him back to the pavilion. With the fall of Short, there was no room for wasting time for the Aussie batsmen but Kohli assigned the task of holding them to his spin twins in the form of Chahal and Sundar. Sundar denied both Henriques and Matthew Wade lengths to get under the ball and conceded only three runs in that over. With 46 runs needed off the last 24 balls, Henriques and Wade had to go against whoever came to the attack and Chahal was smart enough with his loopy deliveries that kept on going away from their eye lines. Ultimately, Wade was found wanting on a wrong’un that kept on turning away from his off stump and a mistimed slog sweep found Kohli at the midwicket boundary who had stationed himself perfectly for that shot, which is considered as Wade’s go-to shot when under pressure. The match looked out of the hosts’ reach and any chance of them coming back in the game was settled when Henriques was trapped in front of the stumps by Chahar. Chahar assumed the batsman had hit the ball and did not appeal but KL Rahul was aware of the opportunity from behind the stumps as the umpire Rod Tucker acceded to his demand and put his finger up to send Henriques and with him Australia’s chances of winning the game back to the pavilion. When Natarajan bowled Starc by his searing yorker that has brought him into the T20 and ODI squad at the first place, it was more or less India’s game to lose and Virat Kohli and his men made sure there were no good ups to let the game slip away from their hands. Earlier, Australian captain Aaron Finch won the toss and had invited Virat Kohli to unleash what he had to offer on a pitch that had supported pace and bounce in the last game. Surprisingly enough, the ball did swing and Starc was the first one to extract it out of the air and sent Dhawan packing with a jaffa that swung late to uproot his off stump. Both him and Rahul had batted slowly in the first two overs to settle down and his wicket derailed the momentum even before the team could set one. Virat Kohli tried his hands to take along the scoring rate with a handful of strokes but a long hop from leg spinner Mitchell Swepson found him out of shape in desperation to make full use of the bad delivery and in the end, he could only chip it straight back to the bowler. After Kohli’ wicket, Sanju Samson, who was trusted to play, de[piste the presence of another wicketkeeper-batsman Rahul in the playing XI, looked on a mission to justify his place and he hit some eye-catching strokes before finding fielder at the cover position. Samson stayed at the crease for a short period of time, but his cameo allowed Rahul, who was shaping in to play a big one like he was doing in the IPL, to get away with the momentum. India were set to run away with the flow but the fall of Samson followed Rahul’s wicket who looked searching for boundaries in the middle overs and the wrist-spinning duo of Zampa and Swepson had denied him any chance to cut loose. In the middle overs, Australia squeezed Indian batsmen so much so that they could score only 18 runs at the expense of three wickets in the overs between 11 and 16. Manish Pandey, too, disappointed and went back cheaply and it brought the pair of Jadeja and Pandya back to the batting crease after they had done mayhem against the hosts in the last ODI at the same ground. Today though, the situation was different, and Pandya could not replicate his hard-hitting form today and perished which left Jadeja to bring on all the heroics in the end by himself alone. He was up to the task and started his onslaught in the 19th over bowled by Josh Hazlewood and took him for 23 runs. He hurt his hamstring after the third ball and when he stood back on his feet, he deposited the bowlers for a humongous six, followed by two fours to take away the momentum from the hosts. Mitchell Starc looked to be coming back to his rhythm as he was finding his yorkers yet again and one short ball found the helmet of Jadeja that allowed India to bring Chahal while bowling as the all-rounder failed the concussion test. India and Virat Kohli will be relieved on getting off to a winning start in the three-match T20 series after batsmen were failing to make big runs at the start. Jadeja with the bat brought them back in the game and bowlers made sure that a modest total was made to look insurmountable, but both skipper Kohli and the team would be wary of similar batting performances as the teams will now travel back to Sydney where they were annihilated while bowling and batsmen had to failed to match up to the firepower of the hosts.