Indian veteran wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik feels India’s decision to pick up a new ball at that stage has backfired India as the Australian batter started to score some quick runs with the new ball and lauded Rohit Sharma for his Pro-active captaincy.
The 37-year-old speaking on Cricbuzz show with Harsha Bhogle said that he was impressed with Rohit Sharma’s captaincy for his field placements and for his bowling changes which got him 4 wickets, on track which had not offered any spin until the end of Day 1.
“I liked it for the large part of the day. He was proactive in field placings. He didn’t use the usual method of keeping a silly point, short leg. He kept things tight consistently. After the first hour, he pulled it back and got 4 wickets. Then during that middle phase when Smith and Khawaja were playing, he held it tight and didn’t give them easy boundaries,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
Dinesh Karthik pointed few tactical errors by the Indian skipper on Day 1reckoned that taking the new ball at that stage was an indecisive move by the Indian Skipper, and the move proved to be costlier for India as Australia started to score at an ease with the second new ball and he also added India should have taken the new ball at 85th or 86th.
“But I think him taking the new ball at that stage wasn’t a great decision. In hindsight, he should have looked back and said ‘Should I have bowled 9 overs with it? Or maybe 4-5? That is one.
At Lunch of Day 2, Australia was in the comfortable position of 347-4 with an excellent batting performance by Usman Khawaja (150) and Cameron Green (95) remaining unbeaten and they will look to add post the big 1st innings score against India.
Axar Patel Is Very Interesting Case Study In Rohit Sharma Captaincy – Dinesh Karthik
Dinesh Karthik also questioned the utilization of Axar Patel in this series, as he has been underutilized by the Indian skipper, and reckoned that Axar would have been a little effective with the second new ball as he got tall arm action and bounce compared to other Indian spinners.
Axar Patel is a very interesting case study in Rohit Sharma’s captaincy so far. He’s got 2 pillars of Indian cricket in Jadeja and Ashwin and he is giving them a large volume of overs. But where is Axar Patel in the mix – the third spinner? He’s got bounce, it’s his home conditions,” he added.
Rohit Sharma has mostly bowled Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin for the first three tests in this series and Axar Patel has been given only short spells but he has played very well with the bat.