On the early day of the Leeds Test against England, the Indian batsmen looted their performance. Captain Shubman Gill and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (101 runs) played a century innings. At the same time, vice-captain Rishabh Pant has also managed to hit half-century. On the first day (20 June), India scored 359 runs for 3 wickets in their first innings. Shubman 127 and Rishabh were unbeaten on 65 runs.
Opener KL Rahul also played an important role in reaching the Indian team here. Rahul, along with Yashasvi Jaiswal, partnered 91 runs for the first wicket. The first two hours of the game were important for the Indian team on the first day of the game. Rahul-Yashasvi’s partnership made the new ball outdated, which made it easier. Rahul was dismissed by Bridan cars in the 25th over of the innings. Rahul scored 42 runs from 78 balls, including 8 fours.
Manjrekar again tightened Kohli!
Former Team India cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar was impressed by Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul’s batting. Praising Yashasvi-Rahul during the commentary, Manjrekar said something that is being considered a sarcasm on former team captain Virat Kohli. Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket on 12 May.
KL Rahul and Yashasvi left the balls going out of the off stump in the initial over during the Leeds Test, which Sanjay Manjrekar described a sensible step. Manjrekar said that earlier some batsmen used to try to play shots on such balls, but both of them are not doing so. Please tell that Virat Kohli’s trouble has been balls going out of the off-stump. Kohli, especially in Test cricket, was seen losing his wicket on the balls going out on many occasions.
Sanjay Manjrekar said, ‘What you are able to see, these two batsmen (Yashasvi-Rahul) have done it. Another example was just seen. Some of the earlier batsmen would try to play shots on such balls and get into trouble, but both of them do not do so. This is the reason why I trust both of them.
In the recent season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sanjay Manjrekar released the list of top-batsmen, in which he did not keep Virat Kohli. Manjrekar had chosen the batsmen who scored big runs and their strike rate was also excellent. Through this list, he taunted Virat Kohli in a way. Kohli scored 657 runs in IPL 2025 at a strike rate of 144.71. However, Kohli’s strike rate was the lowest among the top-10 batsmen who scored the most runs in IPL 2025.
During the IPL 2025, Sanjay Manjrekar was asked whether Battle should be considered as ‘Best Vs Best’ between Virat Kohli and Jaspreet Bumrah. On this, Manjrekar had said that Kohli is no longer the same as before.