Former Indian captain and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has backed the Indian team management’s decision to promote Axar Patel up the order at No.5 in the second ODI against New Zealand in Wellington.
Speaking to Sony Sports, Gavaskar agreed with the tactic of promoting Axar up the order, as sending the left-hander up the order could break the sequence of right-handers. Interestingly, Axar could score only seven runs off 17 balls.
“The bowlers have slight difficulty if a left-handed batter comes because you have to change the line and length you would have for a right-hander. In trying to do that, your line can change slightly even to the right-hander, where more chances of getting runs are created,” Gavaskar said on Sony Sports after the game.
“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,” Gavaskar added.
Delving into the details of the second ODI, New Zealand was tasked with batting first, and they got bundled out for 134 runs in 41 overs. Daryl Mitchell was the top scorer, amassing 55 runs off 104 balls with five fours and two sixes. Gurnoor Brar scalped a four-fer.
In the chase, India sealed the deal in 26 overs with three wickets in hand. Shreyas Iyer (30), KL Rahul (26*) and Rohit Sharma (23) were the top scorers as India took a 2-0 lead in the five-game series.
