It's not going to be easy: Manjrekar raises doubt over Ravindra Jadeja's selection in India's T20 WC squad

With just four months left for the 2022 T20 World Cup to begin in Australia, all eyes are on who will make the cut into India's 15-man squad. With the Indian Premier League (IPL) showing the immense amount of talent present in the country, the competition for places is heating up.

While head-coach Rahul Dravid stated that it was the desire of the team to finalise their core group of 20 players in the near future, the team is no closer to doing so as a second string team will be playing the two-match T20I series against Ireland with many first-choice players absent as they are involved with the Test squad for the big clash against England. The return of senior players for the T20I series against England is also doubtful as there is only a one day gap between the Test match finishing and the the first of three matches in the shortest format.

As questions remain over who will make the cut to India's final squad, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has questioned Ravindra Jadeja's place in the squad. The cricket-turned-commentator stated that the Rohit Sharma-led side could pick Axar Patel over the senior all-rounder.

“Clearly, Dinesh Karthik has shown that he can be a number 6 or 7 as a pure batter. The impact that he is making is phenomenal and we saw that in T20Is against South Africa and also in the IPL. So, it’s not really going to be easy for Jadeja to come in and take his place and India might settle in with somebody like Axar Patel," Manjrekar told First Post.

“The side now has Hardik Pandya, Karthik batting down the order. Rishabh Pant is also there so it’s not going to be easy for him. But knowing the kind of player Jadeja is, he will be making sure that the headache doesn’t get less for the selectors," he added.

Jadeja had a season to forget in the 2022 IPL as he lost captaincy of the Chennai Super Kings' after just eight games in charge. Meanwhile, he struggled for form with both the bat and ball before an injury ruled him out of competition.