Indian team management on Saturday evening made an unusual decision during the start of their final innings against Bangladesh in Dhaka. After the dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara, head coach Rahul Dravid and captain KL Rahul decided to send Axar Patel ahead of India’s usual No.4, Virat Kohli, to bat. India eventually won the match, with Axar playing a pivotal role in the chase, but former cricketers in Sunil Gavaskar and Ajay Jadeja had strong criticised the call. On Sunday, after India won by three wickets to clinch the series as well, Pujara gave a stern reply to both as he defended the call to send Axar before Kohli in the batting line-up.
Speaking to Sony Sports at the end of Day 3, Gavaskar felt that the decision had sent a bad message to Kohli, whom he hailed as “one of the best batters in the world”.
“It didn’t send a good message to Kohli. He is the best batsman in the world. Unless Kohli himself asked for it, then it’s a different matter. We don’t know what happened in the changing room. But it’s hard to understand. Axar has played well, of course,” he said.
Jadeja, who was part of the Hindi panel, added, “He is the world’s best player. 15 overs were left. Saba Karim said it could have been because of the left-right combination, which is an obvious thought, but then I feel – did Rishabh Pant take a sleeping pill? I will also say that it is easy for us to say this from here; we don’t know if someone was not feeling well.”
On Sunday, when Pujara joined Sony Sports for a chat on the match, Jadeja asked him about his thoughts when he saw Axar walk in after his dismissal, ahead of Kohli. The star batter, who was named the Player of the Series, defended the decision instead.
“It was a very good move because among their three strike bowlers, two were left-arm spinners. Axar is a left-hander, so he was sent to tackle them and to have a batter who can bat sensibly in the initial period against the Kookaburra ball. It was a crucial move for us,” he explained. “That was an important phase of the game where we didn’t want to lose too many wickets in the evening, and he could have batted cautiously. So I was not surprised. When you are chasing a 145-run total, every run is important, and the way he batted, his innings was very valuable for us.”
Axar stayed unbeaten in 26 at the close of Day 3 while Kohli was dismissed for just one. He was later dismissed for 34 before Shreyas Iyer and Ashwin fought valiantly to guide India to a win.
