When Rishabh Pant was run out after a miscommunication with Virat Kohli in the middle, Washington Sundar came out to bat ahead of Sarfaraz Khan and Ravindra Jadeja. However, this move has not pleased Manjrekar one bit.

“India backed themselves, batted first but 46 all out is a problem. It should have been a 180 all out, the series would have panned out differently. But I would say this though, that move to have Sarfaraz Khan bat down the order and sending Washington Sundar above him because he is a left-hander, those kind of things shouldn’t happen. It’s just bizarre. That’s one thing that Rohit Sharma needs to be careful of,” Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.

“The T20 kind of thinking like those matchups, you should go by the overall quality of players,” he added.

“Coach has minimal influence on a team”

Sanjay Manjrekar also opined that the blame of this loss cannot be put on the shoulders of head coach Gautam Gambhir as the coach has a “minimal influence on the team.”

“I will still maintain that the coach has the minimal influence on a team. He does not set foot on the ground, the captain is in-charge out there. But you have to applaud him for Washington Sundar’s selection, which was an immediate hit,” said Manjrekar.

“But the move to send him ahead of Sarfaraz Khan or maybe four spinners here would have made more sense. But to put any kind of responsibility on the door of Gautam Gambhir would be terribly unfair because until now we can’t do it because in cricket, a coach has minimal influence on performances,” he added.

The series loss against New Zealand has now made India’s road to the World Test Championship (WTC) final, a bit tricky, and the side now needs to win atleast four matches out of the remaining six.

India will next take on New Zealand in the third and final Test, beginning November 1 at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

After this, India will travel to Australia for the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The series is set to begin in Perth on November 22, 2024.