Former Indian Test opener Sadagopan Ramesh slammed the team’s think tank for playing with six left-handers in the top seven batters amid the T20I series against England. After Vaibhav Sooryavanshi replaced Sanju Samson in the playing XI in the second T20I of the series, India’s captain Shreyas Iyer is the only right-hander among the main batters.

Ramesh also questioned Indian batters’ skills against England spinners and reckons the visitors have played Will Jacks like they are playing Muttiah Muralitharan.

Jacks returned with impressive figures of 1-28 in his quota of four overs and accounted for Shivam Dube in the fourth T20I at County Ground, Bristol.

Ramesh said on his YouTube Channel, “Indian batters have played Will Jacks like Muralitharan because everyone coming in is a left-hander. So right-hand batters must be given weightage in selection in modern day cricket.”

“It’s one thing if you have players like Warne, Muralitharan with the ball or Lara, Gayle and Tendulkar with the bat, who are beyond matchups. But India don’t have such quality here. With so many left-handers, even Will Jacks turned into a villain for India. In England conditions, he has conceded only 85 runs off 11 overs.”

Ramesh slammed the team management for ignoring the matchups while picking their final XI.

“The core problem is in the selection of the squad and in the playing 11. Just this game, eight out of the top nine were left-handers. What day and age is the Indian management living in? In this era, teams plan and pick their 11 almost purely out of matchups. At such a time, how can you pick eight left-handers in the first nine?,” said Ramesh (via the aforementioned source).

The fifth T20I between India and England will be played at Rose Bowl, Southampton, on Saturday.