India endured a disappointing overseas campaign, losing the five-match T20I series against England 0-4 after the opening match was abandoned due to rain. The defeat followed a 0-2 series loss against Ireland, leaving the reigning T20 World Cup champions without a single victory across the two overseas tours.
Speaking in a video posted on Instagram, Manjrekar said that making changes to the coaching staff, leadership group or players would not resolve the deeper issues affecting the team.
"The easiest thing to do for India would be to sack Gautam Gambhir, sack the captain, sack some of the players who did not perform well in Ireland and England. That would be the easy thing to do," Manjrekar said.
Shreyas Iyer, who took over the T20I captaincy from Suryakumar Yadav after India's World Cup triumph, has faced a difficult start to his leadership tenure. Under his captaincy, India lost six of their seven T20I matches, while one game was abandoned due to rain.
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The heavy defeat against England also resulted in India losing the top position in the ICC Men's T20I rankings to England.
Manjrekar said India's biggest issue was a lack of preparation for overseas conditions. He argued that the team selection process focused heavily on performances in the Indian Premier League rather than assessing players' ability to succeed in challenging international environments.
"The right thing to do would be to identify the main reason for India's setback. And the main reason is that these T20 matches were played in Ireland and England, overseas conditions," he said.
He added that most players were selected based on their IPL performances, which did not always reflect their ability to handle difficult bowling conditions outside India.
"Our batters and our team were poorly prepared for these conditions. Why? Because the selectors actually picked all these players based on their IPL performances," Manjrekar said.
Manjrekar also criticised the batting-friendly conditions in the IPL, saying such surfaces make it difficult to accurately judge the capabilities of Indian batters in challenging situations.
"The IPL puts on a very heavy makeup on Indian batters, all batters. The IPL batting conditions are the easiest I have ever seen in my life. And that is why it flatters to deceive. And that is why you see so many batters at the top of the order doing the crazy things that they do," he said.
He further explained that IPL success does not always translate into international success, especially when pitches provide assistance to bowlers.
"So you do not really know which player will do well when there is something there for the bowlers. And it is not as easy as batting on a marble sheet as it is in the IPL. And that is where the selectors need to be smart and pick people like Shubman Gill, who will succeed in Ireland, England, everywhere as a T20 batter," Manjrekar said.
Concluding his remarks, Manjrekar said the focus should move beyond changing players and instead examine the decisions behind creating batting-dominated IPL conditions.
"Go deeper and actually sack those guys who have been advising the BCCI that batting-friendly conditions make IPL more popular and more commercially viable. Let's have more fours and sixes. Let's have more 100-plus scores," he stated.
Manjrekar's comments have highlighted concerns over India's preparation strategy, player selection approach and the influence of domestic T20 conditions on international performances. The debate has intensified after the team's consecutive overseas series defeats and the loss of its top position in the ICC Men's T20I rankings.
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