India somehow managed to pull that win against Bangladesh in the second Test of the series on Sunday. While chasing a mediocre total of 145 runs, India lost 7 wickets at one point in time. Senior batters like KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, and Pujara again disappointed. After witnessing the Day 3 situation, team India sent Axar Patel to the No. 4 spot to face deadly Bangladesh’s spinners. Former Indian cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Ajay Jadeja criticized this move from the Indian team management.
“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 as a commentator on Sony Sports Network.
Pujara on India sending Axar ahead of Kohli pic.twitter.com/xAFrbNirf3
— The Game Changer (@TheGame_26) December 25, 2022
Jadeja was doing Hindi commentary and said, “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 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.”
In a conversation with the broadcaster, Jadeja asked Pujara about this move. Pujara came up with a straightforward answer and said, “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. 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”.
