Sanjay Manjrekar Insults Virat Kohli: Naturally, the fans missed the presence of Virat Kohli as the India vs England Test series 2025 kicked off on Friday in Leeds.
Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket during the IPL 2025, which meant that the BGT 2024-25 turned out to be his last Test series. Fans had been awaiting Kohli’s return to Test cricket on another tour of England, but alas, he bid adieu to the format he holds so dearly and highly.
India began their journey under Shubman Gill at Headingley, entering the new era after the retirements of not only Virat Kohli but also Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin.
India got a good start in the first Test through a solid opening stand between Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul as the duo added 91 runs for the first wicket while batting for more than 20 overs, nullifying the new ball.
At a time when Jaiswal and Rahul were going well, commentator Sanjay Manjrekar didn’t refrain from taking a jibe at Kohli regarding his issues outside the off-stump. Kohli had a nightmarish time during the BGT 2024-25 in Australia, where each of his dismissals came via the outside edge.
Rahul and Jaiswal, the right-hander in particular, showed a lot of assurance while leaving deliveries outside the off-stump today. Rahul was measured in his approach with balls outside the off-stump.
After one such leave from Rahul, Manjrekar made a cheeky and disrespectful remark, suggesting that a “former batter” would have fished for that sort of ball and nicked it—clearly hinting at Kohli’s dismissals to the outside edge.
Manjrekar said, “There’s another example. We know a former batter who would have gone after that delivery and got himself into trouble, but not these two.”
Video: Sanjay Manjrekar Insults Virat Kohli With Outside Edge Jibe
The commentator’s curse did strike soon, as Rahul had managed only eight more runs since Manjrekar’s praise before he nicked a delivery from Brydon Carse to Joe Root in the slip.
India lost Rahul and debutant Sai Sudharsan at the stroke of lunch. But Jaiswal and captain Shubman Gill restored India’s momentum with a flurry of boundaries after lunch. At the time of writing, India are 187/2, with Jaiswal on 80* and Gill on 55*.
India vs England 1st Test Playing XIs:
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
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