Indian captain Rohit Sharma has hinted at playing Akshar Patel as an all-rounder in the upcoming T20I series against Australia and South Africa, as well as in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2022, after the star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was ruled out due to his knee surgery.

Jadeja was ruled out of the Asia Cup 2022 after playing a few matches after sustaining a knee injury. He recently underwent surgery and is expected to miss competitive cricket for a long period.

Given that, Team India will try to find the right balance in the upcoming T20I series, and Rohit has already made it clear that Akshar will take Jadeja’s place in the playing XI, which means he is highly likely to perform in a similar role in the T20 World Cup 2022 as well in Australia.

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Rohit Sharma said in a press conference ahead of India vs Australia T20I series: “We needed an all-rounder there because Jadeja was a big miss for us. Axar was always a part of our plans. It was always going to be between Axar and Jadeja because they do similar things. Since Jadeja is not available we were quite clear that Axar is the guy who can do the job for us.”

Akshar has played 11 T20Is for India this year and claimed 8 wickets at an economy rate of 8.32. He also played a crucial knock of 64* off 35 balls against the West Indies.

Speaking about the same, the skipper noted, “Recently if you saw in the West Indies, he batted brilliantly, won the game single-handedly.”

Rohit also highlighted the left-arm spinner’s ability to take charge of the bowling in all three phases of the innings and said it gives the Indian team a big advantage.

He signed off by saying, “He is a three-phase bowler, bowls in powerplay middle-overs, maybe can bowl an over at the death as well if you want to make use of the bigger boundary.”

(News18 inputs)