​​​​India suffered a humiliating 184-run defeat in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). With that, India are on the verge of losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in the last 10 years as Australia now lead the five-match Test series 2-1. Following India’s poor show in Melbourne, there has been a lot of debate among fans whether senior players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli should retire from the longest format of the game. Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar also gave his take on the same. 

Speaking to Star Sports after the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Sanjay Manjrekar said that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli don’t have any comparison as a batter in Test cricket. He also backed Kohli to have a long run in red-ball cricket. “I must say there is no comparison between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as Test batters. Virat Kohli is right up there. He’s a great Test batter and Rohit Sharma is a good Test batter. Rohit’s white-ball batting was great. So Virat Kohli obviously deserves a longer rope,” Manjrekar was quoted as saying by News18.

Sanjay Manjrekar criticises batting coach Abhishek Nayar after Virat Kohli’s failure in Melbourne

After getting a hundred in the first BGT Test match in Perth, Virat Kohli hasn’t been able to carry his form in the next three Tests of the series. One of the issues that Kohli has been facing with his batting in the ongoing series is to tackle the outside off delivery. Speaking further, Sanjay Manjrekar also pointed out at India’s batting coach Abhishek Nayar for failing to correct the flaw in Virat Kohli’s batting. 

“It’s not so much about Virat Kohli. I want to know what the batting coach of India is doing. We can’t solve the obvious problem of such a fine player," he said “… Enough has been said about Virat. He’s a fine player going through a tough phase. We need to leave him alone and let him work through his issues. This isn’t just about Kohli’s form; it’s also a question of how the team management and batting coach are addressing these problems,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.