Reetinder Sodhi remarked that Virat Kohli and the selectors, after the successful Australia tour, have started giving preference to bowlers who possess potent batting abilities.
India’s tour of Australia witnessed some valuable knocks by Indian bowlers in testing conditions, something rarely seen in the past.
Reetinder Sodhi: Virat Kohli’s Thinking Changed After The Australian Tour As Selectors Have Given Weightage To Bowlers Who Can Bat Well
Be it Shardul Thakur’s 67 and Washington Sundar’s 62 in the first innings in the Gabba Test or the rearguard action involving spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the Sydney Test, the lower order stepped up to help out with instrumental batting duties.
According to former India cricketer Reetinder Sodhi, those performances may have changed Virat Kohli’s mindset regarding bowlers than can bat. While speaking to India News, Reetinder Sodhi remarked that Virat Kohli and the selectors have started giving more weightage to bowlers who possess potent batting abilities.
“I feel Virat Kohli’s thinking changed after the Australia tour. The theory that if your bowler can bat has proved effective. If we talk about Washington Sundar and Ashwin’s batting in Australia, I think they were pivotal there. They changed the match there and we created history. So, somewhere or the other we are seeing in this selection that the selectors have given weightage to the bowlers who can bat and are all-rounders,” Reetinder Sodhi told India News.
Being 1-0 down, losing the services of regular skipper Virat Kohli due to his paternity leave, having lost several key players like Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja due to injuries at various stages of 4 match Test series, a second-string Ajinkya Rahane-led India staged a comeback as they won their second straight Test series on Australian soil. The win at Brisbane was more creditable as they even struggled to field an XI and eventually fielded a team without any frontline bowler.
Reetinder Sodhi: Ravichandran Ashwin And Axar Patel Have Been Recognized For Good Performances
While speaking about India’s upcoming tour of England, Reetinder Sodhi said India’s key spinners will prove to be potent on English wickets.
“The way Ashwin has come back if we talk about his bowling. The way Axar Patel has given splendid performances against England, they have been recognized for their good performances. They all can prove to be aces in the pack because we all know that how potent our spinners can be on the England wickets,” said Reetinder Sodhi.
India, in the near future, will travel to England for a long tour. They will first play New Zealand in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Following that, Team India will lock horns with Joe Root and Co. in a 5-match Test series, which is scheduled for August-September 2021.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been India’s star performers in Test cricket as the spin duo has dismantled daunting opposition line-ups, especially during India’s home seasons in recent years. Axar Patel, the left-arm spinner took his series tally against England at home to 27 wickets. In his debut Test series against England, he picked 27 scalps to finish behind Ravichandran Ashwin (32) in the leading wicket-takers list.
In Australia, Ravichandran Ashwin bowled with precision, and his spells against Steve Smith where he accounted for his wickets three times shall go down as one the best we have ever seen. Overall, he managed to take 12 wickets from 6 innings at an average of 28.8 with a best of 4/55. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been the pillars of the Indian spin attack, in Test matches, for the last decade.