Jadeja vs Manjrekar: Former India batter talks to all-rounder for first time since bits and pieces comment

Manjrekar and Jadeja haven’t been on the same page on Social Media since the infamous ‘bits and pieces player’ comment made by the former cricketer during the 2019 ODI World Cup.

Manjrekar had slammed the idea of Virat Kohli & Co. opting to play all-rounders and not specialists. The former cricketer also took aim at Jadeja as a player in ODI format.

“I am not a big fan of bits and pieces players which Jadeja is at this point of his career in 50-over cricket. In Test matches, he is a pure bowler. But in 50-over cricket, I would rather have a batsman and a spinner,” Manjrekar had said.

That did not go down well Jadeja, who took to Twitter and wrote, “Still I have played twice the number of matches you have played and I m still playing. Learn to respect ppl who have achieved.I have heard enough of your verbal diarrhoea.”

Jadeja also did his signature sword celebration towards the commentary box when he struck a fifty in the 2019 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand.

On being asked about his celebration, Jadeja had said that was a heat of the moment and they understood whom I was targeting.

“Tab toh Bhatta garam tha, na! (The grill was hot, then!) I was searching for the commentary box. Then I thought, it must be somewhere there, only. And those who understand would know who I was targeting the celebration at!”

However, the spirits were high following Team India’s thrilling win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2022 on Sunday (August 28) in Dubai. And following the match, Manjrekar’s interview Jadeja went viral.

During the post-match interview, the former India batter Manjrekar asked a cheeky question to Jadeja after India beat Pakistan by 5 wickets.

“First question – You are ok to talk to me? Right, Jaddu?”, Manjrekar asked. And Jadeja replied: “Yeah, yeah (laughs). Absolutely!!”

Jadeja, who batted at number 4, scored 35 off 29 balls sharing brilliant partnerships with Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya, the eventual match-winner.

Jadeja later continued to talk about the game and the crucial partnership with man of the match Hardik Pandya, who had a brilliant outing with both bat and ball.

“We wanted to play till the end, they have a very good bowling attack, their fast bowlers don’t give anything away. I could have finished the game – left-arm spinner against the left-hander,” Jadeja told Manjrekar in the post-match interview.

“But Hardik played superbly. He (Pandya) came out and said he was going to play his shots, and happy that he stayed till the end.”