Follow UsIndia began their dress rehearsal for the Champions Trophy with a win in the first of the three ODIs against England. After deciding to bat first, England had a good start from their openers and were batting at almost 10 runs/over for sometime. However, the Indian bowlers made a resounding comeback and restricted them to 248 all out in 47.4 overs.
In the chase, India lost both the openers, skipper Rohit Sharma and debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal, early. Then vice captain Shubman Gill (87 off 96), Shreyas Iyer (59 off 36) and Axar Patel (52 off 47) took the mantle in their hands and ensured India coasted home despite the early and some late scalps.
In this, the decision to send Axar ahead of KL Rahul at number five really stood out as Rahul batted at that position with a lot of success in the 2023 ODI World Cup as well.
“We want a lefty in the middle, it is simple,” skipper Sharma said, explaining the reasoning behind Axar’s promotion.
“We know they have a couple of spinners who are going to bowl into the left-handers and we wanted one out there. Axar is an improved batter in the last couple of years, we got to see that today. We needed a partnership and Gill and Axar batted really well.”
Sharma also acknowledged that he was very happy with this performance by his team in slightly tough situations and after being a long time away from the format.
“Pretty happy because we knew we were coming after a long time to this format,” Sharma said in the post match presentation.
“We wanted to quickly regroup and understand what is to be done. Didn't start off well with their openers putting pressure on us, but the way we came back was superb. This is a slightly longer format where you have time to come back. When things start to go away from you, it doesn't mean it will keep going away. Credit to the bowlers, everyone chipped in. It was important for us to keep us going, we took wickets at crucial time, the energy on the field was brilliant as well."
Player of the Match Gill also told how batting had gotten tougher in the second innings due to extra turn available later in the game.
“I thought it was a bit double-paced,” Gill said.
“Spinners varied their pace well, when they bowled slow, it was turning. Had it in mind to look to square of the wicket and not try to hit down the ground.”