Watch: Srikkanth’s hilarious reply to Sanjay Manjrekar while naming Indian XI for ODI World Cup

Former Indian cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth took a dig at Sanjay Manjrekar while doing a commentary on Star Sports for the ongoing Indian Premier League. During commentary, Srikkanth was asked to select his Indian playing XI for the upcoming ODI World Cup, that is scheduled to be hosted by India, later, in the year.

The former Indian skipper didn’t took much time and named his 11 players that should play for India in the World Cup. However, his co-commentator Manjrekar suggested the name Shardul Thakur to come as a pace bowler. After which, Srikkanth quickly brushed away his decision and came up with a savage reply that left Manjrekar as well as the other commentator, Yusuf Pathan in splits.

“Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, number four I’ll still pick Suryakumar Yadav. KL Rahul could be fifth, Hardik Pandya sixth. Ravindra Jadeja at 7, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj,” said Srikkanth while naming his Indian playing XI.

“Not Shardul. Arshdeep could be there. Shardul can take wickets, but he can also concede 12 runs in an over. You’re from Mumbai, that’s why you’re naming Shardul!” Srikkanth replied to Manjrekar after he suggested the name of Shardul.

“Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav; two of these spinners can play in the XI,” Srikkanth concluded.

No Bumrah, Pant and Iyer in Srikkanth’s XI

In his playing XI, Srikkanth also missed the names of key players like, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer. Indian pacer Bumrah has been away from cricketing action since September 2022 due to back problems. The 29-year-old, recently, underwent surgery in New Zealand due to which he will be away from the action for almost six more months.

While wicketkeeper batter Pant is in recovery mode after suffering a major car accident in December 2022. The 25-year-old underwent ligament surgery and is away from cricketing action since then. Meanwhile, Iyer complained of a back problem during the Test series against Australia and went on to get ruled out of the ODI series and the ongoing season of IPL.