Cheteshwar Pujara shuts criticism from former cricketers, defends team management's decision to promote Axar Patel

Ravichandran Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer held their nerves on a spin-friendly track to prevent Bangladesh from pulling off a Christmas miracle and register their first win against India. The unbeaten 71-run eighth-wicket partnership ensured India win the second Test in the first session of Day 4 by three wickets and win the series 2-0 to retain their second spot on World Test Championship (WTC) 2022-23 table. With the latest triumph against Bangladesh, Team India's 2022 season came to an end on a rather positive note.

On Day 3 when Indian batters were immensely troubled by Bangladesh spinners, Axar Patel walked out to bat at No.4 ahead of Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant. The move to promote Axar didn't go down well with former Indian cricketers.

Former India captain and legendary batter, Sunil Gavaskar was surprised by Indian team management's decision to promote Axar Patel up the order instead of sending Kohli or Rishabh Pant.

"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," Gavaskar told Sony Sports at the end of Day 3.

"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," Ajay Jadeja, who was part of the panel, added.

The left-handed batter made a handy contribution with the bat, scoring 34 runs off 69 balls that was pivotal in India securing a win in the second Test. Pujara defended the team management's decision to promote Axar after India clinched a thrilling victory on Sunday.

"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," Pujara told host broadcasters.

"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," he added.