R Ashwin has defended India’s decision to promote Axar Patel prior to Suryakumar Yadav during the Chennai ODI loss against Australia recently. In the series decider, India also decided to employ Axar up the batting order instead of Suryakumar, who was coming into the match on the back of two back-to-back golden ducks in the first two ODIs as well.

While speaking on his YouTube channel, as quoted by News 18, R Ashwin defended the decision, saying, “Why did they promote Axar? If they promoted Axar and he negated Zampa and Agar by taking them for 35 or 50 runs in 10 overs then the game was in India’s bag. So the intent was right but the run-out happened. The outcome wasn’t right.”

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“Surya came down the order, Axar was promoted and KL Rahul batted at No.4, that was the talking point of the game. Please look at Australia’s batting order consistently. When Maxwell returns that’s how they will use him as well. Because they are players who can create impact. Suryakumar Yadav is also one such player. He plays spin really well. Australia won that’s why it didn’t become a talking point but Marnus Labuschagne who bats at No.4 had to bat at No.5 because of David Warner. If they had lost the game, these questions would have been asked. It’s decided based on the situation of the game, it’s a hunch call,” R Ashwin again shared.

R Ashwin also said that feedback from fans and critics has been bad these days as there is a compulsion that Team India should be winning all the games as well.

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“There is an opinion that India is the strongest team. We are a strong team, no doubt about that but somewhere down the line, we assume ourselves to be an invincible cricketing nation. So the feedback coming from the public sometimes can be harsh. Even experts are very harsh with their criticisms these days,” R Ashwin concluded.