IND VS AUS: India is leading the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) by 2-0 against Australia. Men in Blue will play the third test match at Indore on 1st March. Asian giants’ lower-order batting has been crucial for them in the series especially Axar Patel’s performance in both games.
Rohit Sharma has explained the reason for Patel’s less blowing in the BGT, he reckons R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were tremendous with the bowl, so it was hard for the Indian skipper to take them out of the bowling attack.
Rohit explained that if three spinners play in the same match, one will definitely underbowl-
“Ashwin and Jadeja have both bowled really well, so I have to continue to make them bowl them as much as possible,”
“If you have three spinners, you know that the third spinner is always under-bowled. It’s been Axar in these two Test matches. You never know who the guy will be in the next two Test matches,” said the Indian skipper.
Indian spin twins Ashwin and Jadeja have been the leading wicket-taker for the Indian side in BGT, with 14 and 17 wickets respectively. The left-arm spinner was player of the match in both games, for his seven wickets and 70 runs in the Nagpur game, and 10 dismissals along with 26 runs in the second test match.
“If guys are getting wickets from both sides, you’ve got to continue to bowl them. That’s how it is. You can’t really do too much,” he further added.
The star all-rounder Jadeja in the last game became the fastest Indian to score 2500 runs and took 250 wickets in test cricket, while Axar Patel was not getting enough chances to bowl and picked up just 1 wicket in the 26 overs he bowled in 2 Test Matches so far.
Axar Patel's batting has been a massive plus point for India. pic.twitter.com/DcP3aGXUMR
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 18, 2023
“It comes very naturally to Jadeja. By the time you are walking back to your field, he is already ready to bowl the next ball. Sometimes it is difficult for me to adjust the field. If I want to push a guy a couple of yards behind, this guy is already on the run-up to bowl,” said Sharma.
Patel has been the second-highest run-getter in BGT after Rohit Sharma with his 158 runs in two innings, Indian team won the last test match against Australia by 6 wickets. Team India needs to win one test match in the remaining two games to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final.