Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has backed the team management’s decision to promote Axar Patel ahead of KL Rahul in the second ODI against New Zealand. Patel batted at number five in the run chase of 135 but was dismissed after scoring only seven runs.
The spin-bowling all-rounder was dismissed for a duck in the series opener at Eden Park, Auckland while batting at the same number. Gavaskar said there is nothing wrong behind the team management’s thought process of promoting Patel in the batting order as he helps India in maintaining a left-right batting combination.
“The bowlers have slight difficulty if a left-handed batter comes because you have to change the line and length you would have caught for a right-hander, and in trying to do that, your line can change slightly even to the right-hander, where more chances of getting runs are created,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Sony Sports.
“There was nothing wrong with that thought process. If Axar had scored runs, you would have said how good the captaincy was. Such moves work at times and don’t work on other occasions, and it didn’t work this time. You also knew there was a solid player like Rahul after him. That’s why you experiment at times,” he added.
On the other hand, Gavaskar picked KL Rahul as the most impressive batter in the second ODI against the Kiwis. Rahul scored an unbeaten knock of 26 runs in India’s DLS method win of four runs.
“KL Rahul impressed me the most because of the way he faced the bowling. He came in a difficult situation. He first hit the short ball along the ground and then hit over the top. He probably knew that the square-leg boundary was slightly shorter at one end, and he took advantage of that,” he said.
The third ODI between India and New Zealand will be played at Seddon Park, Hamilton, on Tuesday.
