Sanjay Manjrekar leaves out Shardul Thakur as he names his India XI for Asia Cup 2023

Commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has named his India XI for Asia Cup 2023.

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar shared his predicted India XI for the first match of the Asia Cup 2023 and left out all-rounder Shardul Thakur from the final selection. The Asia Cup will begin on August 30 in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

While the opening bout will see hosts Pakistan take on first-timers Nepal in Multan on August 30, the Indian team will play all their matches in Sri Lanka and will clash with Pakistan on September 2nd and Nepal on September 4th in Kandy in their Group A matches.

India are currently undergoing a fitness and training camp in Bengaluru and will fly out to Sri Lanka on August 31 for the Asia Cup 2023.

With less than 10 days to go for the high-octane clash, cricketer-turned-commentator Manjrekar picked his India playing XI that could be played against Pakistan.

Shubman Gill and captain Rohit Sharma will open the innings for India. The former cricketer chose Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Mohammed Shami as his first three expert pacers, with Hardik Pandya as his fourth choice. In addition, Manjrekar’s India XI included KL Rahul, who will rejoin the lineup after suffering an injury in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

“My three seamers would be Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami. Hardik Pandya would be my fourth seamer. My spinners would be (Ravindra) Jadeja and Kuldeep (Yadav). My opener would be Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma. No. 3 batter would be Virat Kohli. KL Rahul would play because he is the keeper,” Manjrekar told ESPNCricinfo.

Tilak Varma needed to be fit in somewhere – Sanjay Manjrekar

Manjrekar emphasized that either Shreyas Iyer or Tilak Varma might be included in the starting lineup for the exciting Asia Cup 2023 match. He went on to say, however, that given the setup’s concentration of right-handers, the think tank would consider inserting Tilak as a southpaw to change things up in the middle order.

“Either Shreyas Iyer or Tilak Varma could play [in the middle-order]. I am saying this because in India’s first-choice side XI, the first seven (six) batters, including Hardik Pandya, are all right-handers. Somewhere, India will have to fit in a left-hander in Tilak Varma. This is a problem India has,” Manjrekar added.

Tilak made his India debut in the West indies T20I series and impressed one and all apart from his exploits in the last two seasons of IPL. The young left-hander has played seven T20Is and accumulated 174 runs at an average of 34.80. Furthermore, his stellar IPL campaign included him scoring 343 runs in 11 appearances at a solid average of 42.88.

Sanjay Manjrekar’s India XI vs Pakistan:

Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer/ Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

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