“A former batter would have got himself to trouble” - Sanjay Manjrekar takes an indirect dig at Virat Kohli on Day 1 of Headingley Test

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar took an indirect and vile dig at the former Indian Test batter Virat Kohli on air on the first Day of the ongoing Headingley Test against England in the new WTC 2025-27 cycle.

Moving into the details, when KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were batting after India lost the toss on Day 1, Manjrekar was in the commentary box. Both the Indian opening batters negated the first hour’s play, impressively leaving the outside off-stump deliveries. 

As Rahul went on to leave the outside off-stump balls, the former Indian cricketer was quick to take a vile dig at Kohli, who had a knack of poking the outside off-stump deliveries, which turned out to be his biggest weakness in overseas Tests.

"We know of a former batter who would have gone after that delivery and got himself into trouble," Manjrekar said on "JioHotstar.

"The blueprint for India's success, what we have seen so far is, after that short ball, the next ball is a great delivery. Any other batter, slightly insecure, or not thinking right, or not having any clarity, would have gone after that ball. It was swinging as well, and KL Rahul has left everything in that line," Manjrekar said a few overs later.

It’s important to note that team India would be aiming for its first-ever Test series win since 2007 after drawing the previous Test tour to England in 2021-22 by 2-2.

England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

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