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Xtra Time Web Desk: Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar was slammed on Thursday for "belittling" legendary Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to praise on social media platform X. Manjrekar hailed Virat Kohli for sacrificing his preferred No.4 spot and take up the challenge of batting at No.3 in place of the injured Shubman Gill but in doing so, he also indirectly poked at Ganguly and Tendulkar.

"Hats off to Virat Kohli! Coming out to bat at no 3 bcoz the team needed it. Ganguly, Tendulkar were very keen to open in white ball cricket, but never wanted to go up the order in Tests. That’s a true champion right there for you! Virat," Manjrekar wrote on X.

Tendulkar and Ganguly played iconic roles for India and are true legends, but they weren’t relevant to this conversation. You bringing them up unnecessarily. Let’s stay focused on the current match!

— Jabbar Chaudhary (@Jabbar_Ch_) October 17, 2024

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While Manjrekar's tweet does hold a lot of ground factually in Tendulkar's case, who has batted in the top order once in his 200-Test-long career, it falls short for Ganguly. The former India captain played his first Test tour at No.3 and got two centuries in the two Tests against England. In fact, Ganguly has a better record batting in the top order. In 19 innings, he has scored 763 runs at an average of 44.88 which is higher than his career average of 42.17.

Ganguly started as an opener in tests, played number 3 as well.

Paid PR.

— Amrit Pradhan (@amritpradhan63) October 17, 2024

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So the tweet was to basically to belittle Ganguly and Tendulkar. Holding grudges since three decades is not a good sign Sanjay, behave !

— Parag Mandpe (@ParagMandpe) October 17, 2024

Kohli pushed himself to No.3 as Shubman Gill was ruled out of this Test with a stiff neck. He did that despite not having a good record batting at that number. Before Thursday, in his 116-Test-long career, Kohli batted at No.3 only six times without much success. He scored only 97 runs at an average of 19. He has no half-centuries to his name. His highest score batting at No.3 is 41. The last time he batted in the top-order was against West Indies in 2016.