I would never have Ashwin in my T20 team: Sanjay Manjrekar

The former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar has said that he would never have Ravichandran Ashwin in his T20 team. Manjrekar never shies away from speaking his mind on cricketing matters, regardless of the criticism he might get.

According to Manjrekar, Ashwin is a quality test bowler and when it comes to test cricket, he will definitely pick him, and he was actually disappointed that the offie didn’t get the chance to play even one test match in England. But in T20 cricket, he would not pick Ashwin.

Manjrekar doesn’t think that at this stage of his career, Ashwin can change himself as a T20 bowler. He has been bowling the same stuff for the last 5-7 years in the IPL, and it’s very clear that whatever he has been trying in the shortest format of the game has not paid dividends.

Manjrekar thinks people spend too much time talking about Ashwin in T20 cricket

Manjrekar also doesn’t understand why there is so much talk about Ashwin as a T20 bowler, where there is not much to talk about at all. Manjrekar was speaking on the ESPNcricinfo post-match show after the second qualifier of IPL 2021 which the Delhi Capitals lost.

“We have spent far too much time talking about Ashwin. Ashwin, the T20 bowler, is not a great force in any team. And if you want Ashwin to change, I don’t think that’s going to happen because he’s been like this for the last five-seven years,” Manjrekar said while speaking on ESPNcricinfo post-match show.

“I would never have somebody like Ashwin in my T20 team,” Manjrekar further added.

Ashwin actually bowled reasonably well in qualifier 2 and even while defending just 7 runs in the last over of the game, he made a match out of it as he dismissed Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine off the first 4 balls and gave away just one run.

The equation was down to 6 off 2 balls, and it was looking like tilting in the favor of Delhi Capitals, but then Ashwin conceded a six off the 5th ball of the last over and Delhi lost the game.