"He is short of confidence with self-doubts": Manjrekar reflects on Rohit Sharma

Former Team India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar opened up on skipper Rohit Sharmas poor run in Test cricket by saying he has a lack of confidence and selfdoubtThe 202425 Test season which started with the series against Bangladesh has been not the very best for Rohit Sharma Not only did Team India lose their first home series against New Zealand in 12 years but the skipper is also struggling to score runsIn seven Test matches he is only able to score 152 runs with an average of 1169 with one halfcentury and a highest score of 52 runsIn 13 Tests this year Rohit Sharma has accumulated 607 runs at an average of 2639 including two centuries and two fifties in 24 innings with his highest score being 131Also ReadShocking snub of this Indian athlete from Khel Ratna nominees ministry says no final list yetSpeaking to ESPNcricinfo Sanjay Manjrekar described Rohits performance in the New Zealand series as a rude shock He noted that the Indian skippers defence was repeatedly breached on home pitches during the seriesThe first obvious answer is a lack of confidence with selfdoubts And it was a bit of a rude shock when he played in that home series against New Zealand where his defence was getting breached on Indian pitches Manjrekar saidThe former cricketer recalled Rohits performance during the 2021 Test series against England which he described as a turning point in Rohits Test careerI remember commentating on that series in 2021 against England and kept saying This is Pujaralike the way he was grinding away Somewhere I thought it marked the rebirth of Rohit Sharma as a Test cricketer He scored two hundreds in his first two Tests and I felt this was his true callingplaying for time like a typical Mumbai batter Manjrekar addedWith the fivematch Test series between India and Australia currently tied at 11 the third match ended in a draw The fourth Test match will kick start on December 26 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground MCGIndias BGT Squad Rohit Sharma C Jasprit Bumrah VC Yashasvi Jaiswal Abhimanyu Easwaran Shubman Gill Virat Kohli Devdutt Padikkal KL Rahul Rishabh Pant wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Khan Dhruv Jurel wicketkeeper Ravichandran Ashwin Ravindra Jadeja Mohammed Siraj Akash Deep Prasidh Krishna Harshit Rana Nitish Kumar Reddy Washington SundarAustralia Squad Pat Cummins C Sean Abbott Scott Boland Alex Carey Travis Head VC Josh Inglis Usman Khawaja Sam Konstas Marnus Labuschagne Nathan Lyon Mitchell Marsh Jhye Richardson Steve Smith VC Mitchell Starc Beau WebsterWith ANI Inputs