“Team India has set a benchmark in Asian cricket over the years”: Sanjay Manjrekar

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 16 (ANI): Ahead of the Asian Games 2026, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar spoke at how Team India has ‘set the benchmark’ within the continent’s cricket and the squad has sufficient depth and high quality to deliver house the gold medal after a profitable title defence. 

Harmanpreet Kaur-led ladies’s staff and Shreyas Iyer-led males’s staff intention to defend India’s historic double gold on the Asian Games, with cricketing motion beginning with ladies’s cricket from September 18. 

The males’s staff can be led by Shreyas Iyer and includes a formidable mixture of established worldwide stars and thrilling younger expertise. Jasprit Bumrah, Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi are among the many distinguished gamers set to make their first look on the Asian Games as India goals to retain the title.

The ladies’s staff, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, options a number of the most completed names in world cricket, together with Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh. Having gained the inaugural ladies’s cricket gold on the earlier Asian Games, India will enter the competitors seeking to lengthen its dominance on the continental stage. Cricket motion begins forward of the Asian Games opening ceremony, with the ladies’s competitors commencing on September 17, adopted by the boys’s event from September 24. The presence of a number of of India’s main worldwide gamers makes this one of many nation’s strongest cricket contingents on the Asian Games.

Sanjay Manjrekar, former India Men’s cricketer:

‘India has set the benchmark in Asian cricket over time, and this squad has all the pieces it takes to proceed that legacy. With established stars alongside fearless younger expertise, the staff has the depth and high quality to defend its Asian Games gold medal. Cricket on the Asian Games brings a distinct form of problem, and it will be fascinating to see how this group embraces the duty of sustaining India’s dominance on the continental stage.’

Speaking as per a press launch by Sony LIV, the broadcaster, who unveiled the Commentary Panel for cricket on the Asian Games, Sanjay mentioned, ‘India has set the benchmark in Asian cricket over time, and this squad has all the pieces it takes to proceed that legacy. With established stars alongside fearless younger expertise, the staff has the depth and high quality to defend its Asian Games gold medal. Cricket on the Asian Games brings a distinct form of problem, and it will be fascinating to see how this group embraces the duty of sustaining India’s dominance on the continental stage.’

Former Indian cricket stalwarts Mithali Raj and Anjum Chopra additionally spoke on how successful in Asia calls for consistency, adaptability and the way the Asian Games is a chance for Indian cricket to showcase their expertise and depth. 

‘Winning persistently in Asia calls for adaptability, consistency and the power to keep up excessive requirements throughout completely different conditions-qualities that Indian cricket has displayed repeatedly. Our ladies’s staff enters the Asian Games because the defending champions, carrying the arrogance of sustained success whereas remaining hungry for one more gold medal. Every gold medal issues past the game itself, including to India’s total medal tally on the Games and bringing with it an added sense of duty in addition to motivation. I’m trying ahead to analysing how the Indian staff approaches this chance to additional reinforce the nation’s place as a number one power in Asian cricket,’ mentioned Mithali. 

Anjum mentioned, ‘The Asian Games is one other alternative for Indian cricket to showcase the unimaginable depth of expertise that has been constructed throughout each the boys’s and girls’s recreation. As defending champions, expectations will naturally be excessive, however this group has the expertise, talent and mindset to thrive on that problem. It guarantees to be an thrilling marketing campaign as India seems to as soon as once more stand atop the rostrum and strengthen its dominance in Asian cricket.”

The commentary panel for Asian Games cricket:

Women’s cricket: Mithali Raj, Anjum Chopra, WV Raman, Reema Malhotra, Maninder Singh, Raman Bhanot, Aneesha Ghosh, Suhail Chandok, Atish Thukral

Men’s cricket: Sanjay Manjrekar, Ajay Jadeja, Maninder Singh, Vivek Razdan, Raman Bhanot, WV Raman, Suhail Chandok, Sameer Kochar, Atish Thukral. (ANI)