Photo by Bollywood Hungama (CC BY 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Sunil Gavaskar defends Gautam Gambhir’s decision to promote Axar Patel over KL Rahul

Former team leader Sunil Gavaskar has publicly supported head coach Gautam Gambhir following criticism over batting order tactics during the second one-day international against New Zealand. Gambhir faced backlash for promoting Axar Patel to the fifth batting position ahead of experienced teammate KL Rahul, but Gavaskar insisted the strategy was sound and noted that alternating left- and right-handed batters disrupts the opposing bowling attack.

Despite the tactical gamble failing to yield significant runs from Patel on this occasion, India secured a four-run victory via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method to claim a two-nil lead in the series, aided by a dominant performance from their pace attack.

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