Former Cricketer Manjrekar Blames Minimal First-Class Practice For India’s 0-2 Loss To South Africa

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has delivered a stinging critique of the national team’s batting collapse during their 0-2 home Test series loss to South Africa, branding the current crop of players “poorly trained” and likening them to “NRIs who feel like strangers at home.” Speaking on Instagram after India failed to cross 250 even once in four innings—with only one half-century across the series—Manjrekar argued that top-order stars such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant arrive for home tests severely underprepared for turning tracks due to minimal recent first-class exposure and an overseas-heavy international schedule.

Manjrekar pointed out that in the last two years, these players have featured in nine to twelve away tests each but far fewer at home, and when they do return, they have played almost no domestic red-ball cricket. “Indian batters come to home tests very poorly trained, without any recent experience on those kinds of pitches,” he said, adding that the packed calendar and lucrative overseas tours—driven by the massive revenue India generates for host boards like England and Australia—have turned the team’s own backyard into unfamiliar territory.

The ex-batsman-turned-commentator also slammed the batters’ technique against spin, declaring that “power does not work on turning tracks.” He stressed that the aggressive “stand-and-deliver” approach that occasionally succeeds on fast, bouncy overseas pitches is futile against quality spinners on rank turners, where only subtle skills and patience prevail. Manjrekar’s remarks echo similar concerns raised by Kapil Dev earlier this week about the erosion of traditional Test-match temperament in an era dominated by white-ball cricket.

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The back-to-back home series defeats—first a 0-3 whitewash by New Zealand in 2024 and now 0-2 against South Africa—represent India’s worst home stretch in decades, with five losses in their last seven tests on Indian soil. The team will not play another red-ball match for eight months, with their next assignment a two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in August 2026, giving selectors and the BCCI ample time to address the glaring domestic-cricket deficit Manjrekar has highlighted.

As pressure mounts on head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, Manjrekar’s diagnosis has intensified calls for mandatory Ranji Trophy participation and a recalibration of the scheduling that has left India’s Test batters, in his words, “class players with good records behind them, but like strangers at home.”

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