Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden slammed India’s strategy of sending Axar Patel ahead of Dinesh Karthik in the first T20I against Australia at the IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali on Tuesday. Patel was promoted to number six in the batting order while Karthik played at number seven.
However, the strategy didn’t pay off as Patel could only score six runs whereas Karthik could also manage the same number of runs. Karthik has been playing as a finisher but it didn’t make sense to demote him in the batting order after the dismissal of Suryakumar Yadav.
India’s team management has revealed that they want Dinesh Karthik to bat after the 15th over but the veteran has all the experience to handle the match situation. In fact, this is not the first time when Karthik has been demoted in the batting order.
“I was just thinking about the role of Dinesh. This role Dinesh is playing now, for the life of me, I can’t work out why he wouldn’t be in their batting now. It doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. See. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m disrespecting Dinesh Karthik but he should be batting more – it’s actually the opposite,” Hayden said on air.
When Axar Patel played a beautiful straight drive, Hayden said, “I think Karthik is such a good player that he can come in and play this exact same shot. I question the role that he is playing as a finisher. I think there is a role for him to come up the order,” he added.
On the other hand, former Indian fast bowler Ajit Agarkar also spoke on the same lines and agreed with Hayden’s opinion.
“I find it very strange with regards to Dinesh Karthik. He is a good enough batter to walk in now. Doesn’t have to after the 16th over. And as improved as Axar Patel is, you have the expectation from Karthik to manage this sort of situation. At least you hope he does, considering he is playing ahead of Rishabh Pant as well in this XI. It happened in the South Africa series and again today, Axar is batting ahead of him,” said Agarkar.
India would want to back Dinesh Karthik as he has been in good form and demoting him in the batting order isn’t doing any good.
Team India will play the second T20I against Australia at Nagpur on Friday.
