Sanjay Manjrekar had questioned Mumbai Indians' decision to pick Alzarri Joseph instead of Lasith Malinga in the previous games.
Sanjay Manjrekar's comments on Twitter have time and again rubbed a great many people the wrong way. The former India batsman has ruffled a lot of feathers with his strong opinions and it was no different this time as well when he decided to have his say on the competition between Mumbai Indians pacers Alzarri Joseph and Lasith Malinga. Alzarri Joseph got his chance to make his mark in IPL 2019, when Lasith Malinga left Mumbai mid-way to participate in Sri Lanka's domestic competition.
The 22-year-old from Antigua claimed 6 wickets for 12 runs in 3.4 overs to better Sohail Tanvir's record of 6/14 for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL's inaugural edition in 2008. Alzarri Joseph annihilated SunRisers Hyderabad batsmen as he became the second man to take a five-wicket haul on IPL debut.
Suddenly, Mumbai Indians had a selection headache with the returning Lasith Malinga having to sit out because of Joseph's terrific spell.
Alzarri Joseph's joy was short-lived though as the young Windies pacer bowled just two overs against Kings XI Punjab, conceding 22 runs.
After the match, Sanjay Manjrekar questioned the selection of Joseph ahead of Malinga. Manjrekar opined that Mumbai's decision to pick the West Indian was based on "emotions" and not "cricket logic".
Manjrekar, however, was not done just yet. Following Mumbai Indians' win over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday night, where Malinga took four wickets for 31 runs, the former batsman again took to Twitter.
He pointed to Twitter fans that his earlier stand on Malinga stood vindicated thanks to the Sri Lankan's performance against RCB at the Wankhede.
You sounded more emotional making a case for Malinga on air. Malinga got wickets because batsmen were throwing their bat on everything at that point, so...not a very strong case I'd say. Keep calm.
If emotions didn't play a part in cricket you would have been long gone. As once said by Pollard and I repeat "You can continue with your verbal diarrhoea"
Mumbai Indians' selection headaches eased as Alzarri Joseph had to be ruled out of IPL 2019 with a shoulder injury.