"Challenge was taken away" - Sanjay Manjrekar criticises India's bowling strategy, asks to change line of attack for next Test

Sanjay Manjrekar has blamed India's bowling woes in the second Test against South Africa on their pacers' line of attack. Manjrekar observed that Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur bowled too straight at the Wanderers, which not only deprived them of wickets but also leaked runs.

India lost the Test by seven wickets inside four days, allowing the hosts to level the three-match series 1-1. Defending 240 on a challenging track, India's pacers were expected to come to the party.

However, they struggled on pitch that got better to bat on instead of deteriorating. Moreover, South Africa, led by their captain Dean Elgar (96*) showed remarkable composure to chase down the target in 60 overs on a rain-marred day.

Manjrekar wants the Indian pacers to adopt the outside-off-stump line, especially in low-scoring games. He believes this line challenges batters to choose between leaving and playing, whereas with a stump-to-stump line, it is easier to 'just put bat to ball'. After the game, Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo:

"If you noticed today, every ball was on the stumps. There's a line that you can bowl on South African pitches, especially when you've got only 240 runs to defend which is outside the off-stump."

"That creates a different challenge to the batter because he's then thinking, 'Should I play this one or leave that one?' Now that challenge was taken away because everything was coming into the stumps, and if the ball didn't do much, there were runs to be had."

He continued:

"Look at the economy rates of all the seam bowlers. So when the ball didn't kick or jag around - Bumrah's ball didn't jag around at all in this Test match, Shami not as much only, Shardul was getting the ball to deviate off the pitch - so that meant... the ball was coming onto the stumps, all they had to do was put bat to ball..."

Manjrekar said a fourth-stump line requires more patience, but it could be both frugal and wicket-taking. He said:

"When there's no response from the pitch, that line outside the off-stump has great advantage because you force the batters to leave (straight) balls and those become dot balls, and there'll be some balls that'll come back, and they'll have to play. That's the line that'll get you wickets. It needs a little bit of patience, but more importantly, you don't leak runs too much."

Manjrekar also said that a straight line of attack would have worked better on a pitch where the ball keeps low. However, at the Wanderers, where the deliveries rose occasionally, an outside-off-stump line would have been better at extracting edges to the wicketkeeper or slips.

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"KL Rahul did what most new captains would do" - Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar defended stand-in captain KL Rahul, who's under fire for the defeat. The former batter said Rahul did what 'most new captains would do' - playing it safe with his best bowlers.

The former player also pointed out that off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin wasn't a 'first-choice' bowler for the team. Manjrekar remarked that Ashwin's conservative use on a pace-friendly track was a 'big story', saying:

"That's something captains are OK with because the last thing they want, especially with bowlers who are not first-choice, Ashwin clearly we saw as the match went along, wasn't a first choice bowler, so that kind of bowler needs a little bit of protection."

He added:

"Tactically, I think, Rahul did what most new captains would do. He would go with bowlers who have the pedigree, so there was a lot of Bumrah, Shami; there was a bit of Shardul. The big story as well (is) about what this team thinks of Ravichandran Ashwin, the way he was used. So tactically, with bowling changes, I don't have any issues."

Regular captain Virat Kohli could return for the final test on January 11. Despite the Johannesburg setback, the visitors will fancy their chances of a first Test series win on South African soil.