Cricket pundit Sanjay Manjrekar was slammed on social media for making a bombshell statement about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's place in Team India's T20 World Cup squad.

Alongside Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli is expected to open the innings for India at the elite T20I event in the West Indies and the US which starts on June 1.

However, Sanjay Manjrekar is of the view that the national selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar shouldn't have included Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the squad.

Sanjay Manjrekar reckons that the Indian selectors have made a mistake by selecting them in the squad. Instead, they should have picked a young lot of players for the ICC competition.

“Ideally, I would not have gone that way. I would have stuck with a slightly younger core set of players. But the selectors have committed themselves to the icons, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli,” Sanjay Manjrekar told Star Sports.

“Now that they are in the squad, it is impossible to have Virat Kohli batting at number 3, because then you don't get the full value of Virat. And Rohit Sharma, as well, has to open. So, India, in a way, have forced themselves to have only one kind of combination, two right-handers. Unfortunately, Jaiswal will have to sit out,” he pointed out.

“I would have gone completely with a new lot; then, you would have had a lot more flair and it would be something different. India have trusted the seniors, a move that hasn't worked over the years. Let's hope it works this time,” Sanjay Manjrekar noted.

Sanjay Manjrekar's comments came in the aftermath of Virat Kohli showing his batting prowess as an opener during the IPL, finishing the tournament as the leading run-scorer.

During the 17th edition of the tournament, Virat Kohli made 741 runs in 15 matches, thus becoming the only batter to cross the 700-run barrier this year.

With this, Virat Kohli won the Orange Cap for the second time in the history of the IPL, having previously bagged it in 2016.

In 2016, Virat Kohli struck a phenomenal 973 runs, which remains a record in the event.

However, Virat Kohli was criticized for his batting style throughout the event, with questions being raised about his strike rate almost regularly by former cricketers.

Among two of the most vocal critics of Virat Kohli's strike rate in the IPL were the legendary Sunil Gavaskar and retired New Zealand pacer Simon Doull.

Dinesh Karthik, who hung his boots after RCB's ouster from the 2024 IPL eliminator last week pointed out that Simon Doull's criticism did impact Virat Kohli's batting performance in the event.

“Virat Kohli – well, I can write a book on how he was this year (IPL 2024). He started okay, but I think thanks to people like Simon and a few others who really spurred him on. And you don't want to see that side of Virat Kohli,” Dinesh Karthik told Cricbuzz.

“I think, he thrives on that. He is someone who, inadvertently, wants to hold onto certain things to do well. He loves proving people wrong. Even though he might not come out and say it, it fuels his passion. He is like a molten lava coming out. He is fiery and you don't want to be anywhere close to him because you are gonna get burnt for sure. He has done this time and time again,” he added.

“You can speak about RCB, their success and all of that. But it is not happening without that man, and I am not saying with his batting. It's the intimidating feeling that he gives when he is on the field. the way he pushes fielders,” the just-retired RCB star continued.

“If you ever had a mic in one of those timeouts, my god! There will be a lot of bleeps for this. And ‘Ben Stokes' will be mentioned a bit. But if you look past all that, the intensity that he carries and he expects each player to do, boy, I doff my hat to him. To be doing that in the 17th year of IPL, stand up and applaud the man because RCB and its fans should be grateful to have a guy like that. He is built differently, and that is what propels him,” Dinesh Karthik explained.

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma and his boys will begin their campaign in the T20 World Cup with a game against Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Wednesday.

India squad for the T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan