'...because they do similar things': Rohit Sharma backs Axar Patel to fill Jadeja's void in Indian team

India suffered a big blow just a few days before the start of the 2022 edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup when it was revealed that the team’s star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been ruled out of the mega event due to a knee injury that he suffered during the Asia Cup T20 tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Jadeja is one of the most important players in the Indian set-up in all three formats of the game because of his 3D skillset, but this time he won’t be participating for India in the biggest ICC event of the year.

His absence is a big setback for Team India and it is practically impossible to fill the void left by him, but still, Team India’s skipper Rohit Sharma has backed his like-for-like replacement, Axar Patel, to do the job for the team in upcoming matches. Axar, like Jadeja, is a left-handed bowling all-rounder, who in the past has shown that he is capable enough of winning matches with the bat as well, if the situation arises.

Rohit has admitted that Jadeja’s absence is a big blow for the team, but he is confident that Axar has a great opportunity to showcase his talent as he is a like-to-like replacement for the CSK all-rounder.

"We needed an all-rounder there because Jadeja was a big miss for us. Axar was always a part of our plans. It was always going to be between Axar and Jadeja because they do similar things. Since Jadeja is not available, we were quite clear that Axar is the guy who can do the job for us," Rohit said in the press conference ahead of the start of the three-match T20I series against Australia.

"Recently, if you saw in the West Indies, he batted brilliantly, won the game single-handedly," Sharma said while referring to the second ODI in which Axar scored an unbeaten 64 runs from just 35 balls as a number seven batter and won the game for India.

Another interesting aspect of Axar’s bowling, which Rohit pointed out, was that the left-arm spinner has the credentials to take charge of the bowl in all three phases of the innings, which gives the team a big advantage.

"He is a three-phase bowler; he bowls in the powerplay, middle-overs, and possibly an over at the death if you want to take advantage of the larger boundary," he added.