India will be facing England in their semi-final clash at the Adelaide Oval and the winner of the game will lock horns with Pakistan in the final of the ongoing T20 World Cup at the iconic MCG. But the game isn’t a straightforward one for the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma as he has to take some crucial selections. However, former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has suggested the team go forward with either an extra batter in the form of Rishabh Pant or Harshal Patel instead of Axar Patel for the semi-final clash.

Sunil Gavaskar reckons that India can add an extra batter in the form of Rishabh Pant in place of the second spinner. He reckoned that since Hardik Pandya is back to his best, he can be performing the duty of the fifth bowler, and India can replace the second spinner with a batter, providing depth to the batting line-up.

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During a recent conversation on Aaj Tak, Sunil Gavaskar said, “India needs to think about their bowling attack. Should they play two spinners or a batter in place of a spinner? If they can, Suryakumar can be at 4, Pant at 5, Pandya at 6, and Karthik at 7. You can stretch your batting, and Hardik is now bowling, so he can be your fifth bowler. If you take an extra bowler, you have to consider that the boundaries are short for spinners. You can take Harshal Patel.”

The batting great lamented the use of Axar in the tournament so far and opined that the southpaw isn’t fulfilling his duties as a bowler or a batter for the men in blue. Gavaskar batted for Harshal Patel in his position since he is adept at defending shorter boundaries in the IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

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Elaborating the same, Sunil Gavaskar said, “If you’re giving Axar Patel 1-2 overs, and can’t use his full overs, then why are we picking him? He isn’t scoring runs at no.7 as well. He’s a good player, he played good in West Indies, but if you can’t trust him with the ball, you should pick a bowler on whom you can depend.”