"There are subtleties around them both...": Stephen Fleming on India having Jadeja, Axar in playing 11
Jun 18, 2024
New Delhi [India], June 18 : Ahead of the Super 8 stage of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024, former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming expressed his opinion on India playing two left-arm spin all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in the playing XI.
India will be taking on Afghanistan in their first Super Eight clash on June 20 at Bridgetown. India remained unbeaten in the group stage with wins over Ireland, Pakistan and the USA in low-scoring games, with their last game against Canada on June 15 having been washed out due to rain.
"I don't think so, sometimes it's hard to manage two players to do the same thing, Mitchell Santner and Ravindra Jadeja sort of do the same role for us in CSK and we sometimes find it hard around the selection to get eight overs of exactly the same skill set, they are different bowlers, they bowl differently but both of them when conditions are right can be a real handful, so with their all-round skills and their batting skills it allows India to try that and Jadeja in the right conditions can be incredibly dangerous which we've seen over many years, as Axar can provide a different type of attack where conditions are slightly different like in New York," Fleming told 'ESPNCricinfo Timeout show'.
"There are subtleties around them both but again I hate that notion of left-handers can't bowl to left-hand batters so we can dispel that myth and both of those players can hopefully play along," he added.
India will be aiming to do well against Afghanistan (June 20), Bangladesh (June 22) and Australia (24)
Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj.
