Indian batter Shreyas Iyer shed light on the team’s decision to send Axar Patel ahead of Dinesh Karthik in the second T20I against South Africa at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack on Sunday. Team India could manage 148 runs on the board after Temba Bavuma won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Meanwhile, Axar Patel was promoted to number six when Hardik Pandya was dismissed by Wayne Parnell and the home team was struggling at 90-4. Iyer revealed they needed a batter who could rotate the strike at that stage and they were saving Dinesh Karthik for the final five overs when he is at his best.
Patel could only manage 10 runs and he was dismissed by Anrich Nortje. On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik could not hit the ground running and struggled like most of the other Indian batters. Karthik, however, was able to change gears in the final two overs and scored an unbeaten knock of 30 runs off 21 balls to add the finishing touches.
Shreyas said at the post-match conference: “We had seven overs left and Axar is someone who can take singles and keep rotating the strike. We didn’t require someone to come in and start hitting straightaway from ball one at that point in time. DK can also do that, but he has been a really good asset for us after 15 overs, where he can straightaway slog the ball. Even he was finding it a little bit difficult at the start.”
On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer top-scored for India with 40 runs. Iyer was dismissed by Dwaine Pretorius when the ball bounced a bit more to take the outside edge. The right-hander admitted that the track was difficult to bat on in the first innings. The Barabati Stadium had invariable bounce and there was a lot of seam movement for the fast bowlers.
Iyer added, “It was really tough to be honest. I played 35 balls and I really wasn’t able to identify how the wicket was going to play. I was trying to time the ball as well, I actually tried everything out there. But still, it was really difficult, especially for the new batsman to come in and get going.”
“We could have spent a little more time up the order to try and gauge how the wicket was playing. At the same time, you need to keep the scoreboard ticking. 160 could have been a really good score to put them under a little bit of pressure.”
The third T20I will be a must-win contest for India and it will take place at Vishakhapatnam on Tuesday.
