IND vs WI 2022: "No credit can be taken away from India" - Sanjay Manjrekar on their win against the West Indies
Sanjay Manjrekar has pointed out that Team India cannot be denied accolades for emerging triumphant against West Indies in the recently concluded T20I series.
The Men in Blue registered back-to-back victories in the last two T20Is against the Caribbean side in Lauderhill, Florida, on August 6 and 7 to end a hugely successful tour. The 4-1 T20I series win followed a 3-0 whitewash by the visitors in the preceding ODI games.
During an interaction on the Sports 18 show "Sports Over the Top," Manjrekar was asked how much should be read into India's win against a 'bad' West Indian side. He replied:
"Let's be nice to the West Indies. They are good people to hang with and stuff like that. No credit can be taken away from India for these wins. West Indies in T20 cricket are no minnows or rollovers."
Manjrekar added that Rohit Sharma & co. put it across the Windies despite making a plethora of changes to their XI throughout the series. The former Indian batter elaborated:
"So India's win and the way they have won in the five T20s is something to be proud of. There were various permutations and combinations. India didn't play a single wrist-spinner in the first three T20Is and then they unloaded two wrist-spinners in the last two."
Total Domination from team India vs West Indies despite regular changes in the plying11👏👏 congratulations boys.
Only two Indian players - Dinesh Karthik and Arshdeep Singh - played all five matches in the T20I series. Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were rested for the final T20I, but India still thrashed West Indies by a massive margin of 88 runs.
Prior to that, they won the fourth match convincingly by 59 runs to take an unassailable lead in the series.
"They have tried everything and everything has worked" - Sanjay Manjrekar says India are in a great situation
Manjrekar concluded by stating that the Indian team outplayed a West Indies side that he expects to do well in the T20 World Cup later this year. The cricketer-turned-commentator observed:
"Opener Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan comes in. So they have tried everything and everything has worked. So this is a great situation to be in. West Indies - you will see in the T20 World Cup, they will have some good performances against the other teams. So well done to India."
Sadly the West Indies weren't competitive. But India's depth came through again with what was virtually a second squad winning so easily.
West Indies had a dismal run at the T20 World Cup last year and will also have to come through the qualifiers this time around. However, the Men in Maroon can be a force to be reckoned with if they play to their potential.