Former Indian batter and current commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has advised his national cricket team's top order to play according to the conditions in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 and the upcoming World Cup.
The Blues will kick off their Asia Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 2 in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Manjrekar urges that the batters should show more responsibility and respect the conditions, especially in the first 10 overs.
India will enter into the competition as one of the favourites but the ongoing injury crisis is a big problem for them.
Speaking to Star Sports, Manjrekar claimed that India can do very well in the Asia Cup as well as the World Cup if their top-order steps up.
"See, fortunately for India, number one, two, and three, when Virat bats at number three, they are three very good test batters. And you might talk about 50 overs being a one-day match and white-ball cricket and all that, but the start of a 50 overs game is not like a T20 match," he stated.
"I think there are some serious Test cricket skills needed, and then Rohit Sharma got these five hundreds in the last World Cup.
"I remember him respecting the bowling in the first 10 overs. And these three guys - Gill, Rohit Sharma, and Virat - who have excellent credentials as defensive test batters, that is the game they'll have to bring. If they don't lose early wickets, then it's just their game," Sanjay said.
It must be noted that KL Rahul won’t be available for the first two matches of Asia Cup 2023 due to fitness concerns.
The right-handed batter will miss the games against Pakistan and Nepal on September 2 and 4, respectively.
India's squad for Asia Cup
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna