IPL 2021 was bizarre and frustrating to watch: Sanjay Manjrekar

The second qualifier between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Capitals (DC) had several twists and turns. And in the end, the KKR side managed to beat the Rishabh Pant-led Delhi outfit by 3 wickets to qualify for the 2021 IPL top clash.

And now, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has revealed that the 14th edition of the IPL has been a unique one. The 56-year-old added that the tournament has seen players looking at who might make people wonder if they belong to the big stage.

Manjrekar added that he has seen a lot of bizarre turnaround in the 14th season of the IPL, revealing that this edition of the IPL was frustrating for him to watch.

“I followed the IPL very closely, but this was a very unique IPL. We’ve seen some quality players, but we’ve (also) seen a lot of guys who are either skill-wise, very ordinary to start with, or players who are past their prime.

You have these very good players and then there is a huge number of players who are out of shape, players past their prime, and players with the ability (if you see which one) you wonder if they belong here. And that’s why we’ve seen so many bizarre endings and reversals. This was the most frustrating IPL for me to watch,” Sanjay Manjrekar said in a chat with ESPNCricinfo.

The pitches have helped the bowlers this season: Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar also added that the pitches offered in IPL 2021 have helped both the bowlers and spinners. Manjrekar went on to say that teams looked rusty even at the end of the tournament.

“The pitches helped the bowlers, the medium paced people, the quicks, the spinners, everyone. Bowling has done well, but you would expect batters to play with distinction in this type of competition. You can understand the first few games (but) you shouldn’t look rusty in one of your last games of the tournament… IPL actually had a lot of flaps this time around, and that’s what we’re seeing here,” Manjrekar said.

Sanjay Manjrekar also felt there were some players like Suresh Raina, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik and Riyan Parag who were woefully out of shape but kept playing.

“Once Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill were gone, Dinesh Karthik, clearly out of his best days, Morgan, woefully out of form, I have a long list, Suresh Raina, you know, shouldn’t be playing the IPL, but playing, you have Riyan Parag who played a number of games for Rajasthan Royals, (Liam) Livingstone, Nicholas Pooran, Dan Christian the batter, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, many of these players have just played an important part in this kind of turnaround,” concluded Sanjay Manjrekar.