Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has stated that the Indian team management’s choice to send Axar Patel ahead of KL Rahul in the second ODI against New Zealand was not a mistake. He noted that the left-handed batter was promoted in order to compel the bowlers to change their line and length.
After inviting New Zealand to bat first in Wellington on Saturday, November 7, India bowled them out for 134. The visitors ultimately won the match by four runs through the DLS method, as rain brought the game to an end with them at 113/7 after 26 overs.
"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.
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 said on Sony Sports.
The experiment failed as Axar Patel got out for 7 runs in 17 balls at no. 5, while KL Rahul followed him and remained unbeaten on 26 runs.
When asked to select the most impressive Indian batter in the second ODI against New Zealand, Sunil Gavaskar picked KL Rahul.
"KL Rahul impressed me the most because of the way he faced the bowling. He came into 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.
Being an opening batter, he will open in Tests; he was playing with a straight bat and soft hands. He was looking solid. At the same time, he was hitting fours when required, which meant he was maintaining the pressure on the bowlers. The bowlers might have bowled a few good deliveries, but he scored runs whenever he got a chance," Gavaskar pointed out.
Rahul added 39 runs with Shreyas Iyer for the 5th wicket and hit 2 fours and 2 sixes in his knock. Rahul also added 22 runs for the sixth wicket with Naman Dhir (12).
The third ODI will be played in Hamilton on November 10.
