Indian staff administration on Saturday night made an uncommon resolution in the course of the begin of their closing innings towards Bangladesh in Dhaka. After the dismissal of Cheteshwar Pujara, head coach Rahul Dravid and captain KL Rahul determined to ship Axar Patel forward of India’s regular No.4, Virat Kohli, to bat. India finally gained the match, with Axar taking part in a pivotal position within the chase, however former cricketers in Sunil Gavaskar and Ajay Jadeja had sturdy criticised the decision. On Sunday, after India gained by three wickets to clinch the collection as properly, Pujara gave a stern reply to each as he defended the decision to ship Axar earlier than Kohli within the batting line-up.

Speaking to Sony Sports on the finish of Day 3, Gavaskar felt that the choice had despatched a foul message to Kohli, whom he hailed as “one of the best batters in the world”.

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“It didn’t send a good message to Kohli. He is the best batsman in the world. Unless Kohli himself asked for it, then it’s a different matter. We don’t know what happened in the changing room. But it’s hard to understand. Axar has played well, of course,” he stated.

Jadeja, who was a part of the Hindi panel, added, “He is the world’s best player. 15 overs were left. Saba Karim said it could have been because of the left-right combination, which is an obvious thought, but then I feel – did Rishabh Pant take a sleeping pill? I will also say that it is easy for us to say this from here; we don’t know if someone was not feeling well.”

On Sunday, when Pujara joined Sony Sports for a chat on the match, Jadeja requested him about his ideas when he noticed Axar stroll in after his dismissal, forward of Kohli. The star batter, who was named the Player of the Series, defended the choice as a substitute.

“It was a very good move because among their three strike bowlers, two were left-arm spinners. Axar is a left-hander, so he was sent to tackle them and to have a batter who can bat sensibly in the initial period against the Kookaburra ball. It was a crucial move for us,” he defined. “That was an important phase of the game where we didn’t want to lose too many wickets in the evening, and he could have batted cautiously. So I was not surprised. When you are chasing a 145-run total, every run is important, and the way he batted, his innings was very valuable for us.”

Axar stayed unbeaten in 26 on the shut of Day 3 whereas Kohli was dismissed for only one. He was later dismissed for 34 earlier than Shreyas Iyer and Ashwin fought valiantly to information India to a win.