Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar faced heat on social media after seemingly taking a dig at Virat Kohli on the first day of play in the opening Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between India and England at Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds on Friday (June 20).

Manjrekar, who has often invited criticism over his unfiltered remarks in the media. The ex-Indian batter is known to not mince words, but his opinions have often triggered debate. The cricket-turned-commentator was full of praise for KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal as the duo gave India a solid start with a 91-run partnership after Ben Stokes won the toss and chose to bowl first.

Manjrekar was impressed with the duo's ability to leave the ball outside the off-stump. However, he referred to Virat Kohli's issues with the deliveries, which left fans on social media furious

A few moments after Manjrekar's remark, Rahul departed after edging a delivery from Brydon Carse to KL Rahul on second slip. After the 91-run partnership was broken, India lost debutant Sai Sudharsan for a duck too as they went into the lunch break at 92-2 despite not losing any wickets till the last 10 minutes of the session.

As far as Kohli is concerned, he struggled with the issue during his first tour of England in 2014 but overcame it to produce a display for the ages in the 2018 series, where he made 593 runs, including two centuries.

However, the issue came back to haunt him during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he managed just 190 runs in nine innings despite a century in the series opener in Perth. In each eight instances that he was dismissed in the series, he poked a delivery outside the off stump to either the wicket-keeper or a slip fielder.

The series proved to be Kohli's last in the longest format as he announced his retirement last month before the squad for the tour of England was announced.

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