Team Indian slumped to a 21-run loss against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday as the visitors clinched the series 2-1.
A lot of people were surprised by Indian all-rounder Axar Patel coming in to bat ahead of Suryakumar Yadav, as the left-handed batsman came in at number 5.
After the loss, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma shed some light on the change in the batting order and explained his reason for doing so.
“KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were batting. They were operating against a leggie and a left-arm spinner”, Rohit said.
Surya was slotted to actually go at 5. But, we thought that the ball was taking some turn and we did not want the right-handers to get stuck. Which is why we wanted a left-hander and Axar, being in the form he is, we wanted to just ask him to go in and bat the way he does and take the spinners on”, the 35-year-old opined.
“That is why we had to push him up the order and Hardik (Pandya) is our best player at number 6 and we wanted him to play there and thought about between Surya and (Ravindra) Jadeja to promote up the order”, the captain explained.
Australia were bowled out for a total of 269 in 49 overs as Mitchell Marsh top-scored for the tourists before spinner Adam Zampa took over with the ball and scalped 4 Indian wickets to bundle out the home side for 248 runs in 49.1 overs.
India opened the ODI series with a win at the famous Whankede Stadium in Mumbai as they beat the visitors by 5 wickets. But, the Australians, captained by Steve Smith, pulled one back at the YS Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium in Vishakhapatnam with a whooping 10-wicket win to level the series and take it to the decider in Chennai.
However, things did not go the way the hosts would have wanted as the Australians lifted the series trophy at the Chepauk at the end of the game.
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