Cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar feels India skipper Virat Kohli has instilled strong self-belief in the Indian team, something similar to Pakistan under Imran Khan’s captaincy.
“India under Virat in NZ reminds me of Pakistan under Imran. Strong self belief as a team. Pakistan under Imran found different ways of winning matches, often from losing positions. That only happens when the self belief is strong,” tweeted Manjrekar on Monday.
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Meanwhile, Majrekar also heaped praises on India’s new wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul, who recently started collecting balls behind the stumps for the national team.
Rahul, after making 45 in the final T20I of the five-match series against New Zealand on Sunday, became the highest run-scorer for India (224) in any bilateral T20I series. The Man of the Series overtook Virat Kohli’s record of 199 runs which the latter had made against Australia in a three-match series in 2016.
Apart from this, Rahul’s safe and lightning-fast hands behind the stumps impressed all.
“Find of the T20 series in NZ for me is the ‘batsman keeper’ K L Rahul. Absolutely brilliant!” said Manjrekar.
On one hand, Sanju Samson failed to grab the opportunity given to him in the last two matches and disappointed with the scores of 8 and 2 runs, while on the other, Rishabh Pant had to warm the bench throughout the series.
“Samson & Pant… the next batting brigade of India obviously have the skill & the power game they just need to infuse a small dose of Virat’s batting ‘smarts’( mind) into their game,” added the 54-year-old.
On Sunday, India defeated New Zealand by 7 runs in the fifth and final T20I to clean sweep the Kiwis 5-0 at Mount Maunganui’s Bay Oval.
Post winning the toss and opting to bat first, India had managed to score 163 runs at the venue before restricting the hosts to 156.
