Picture Credit: X

Picture Credit: X

The Indian cricket team will start fresh with the side taking on England in a white-ball series from Wednesday, January 22. While the Men in Blue will first play five-match T20I series, they will next take on The Three Lions in a three-match ODI series, from February 6 onwards. Ahead of the series opener in Kolkata, Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy, Axar Patel addressed the media on Monday, January 20.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference in Kolkata, the Indian all-rounder revealed the strategy they will be looking to go with. The Gujarat-born spoke at length on the importance of flexibility in the team, especially when it comes to the batting order. It is to be noted that Axar Patel himself has served as a floater in India’s T20 batting lineup.

Openers are fixed, but our middle order will come out depending on match situation: Axar Patel

Speaking at the press conference at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, the Indian all-rounder added that the openers for the T20I series are fixed, but the middle order will be decided seeing the match situation. “Batting wise, it's not just with me, but we spoke in 2023-24 itself that the openers are fixed, but everyone from no. 3 to 7 have been told that they can come into bat anytime, in any situation. It is not just that one batter will bat at a particular position, our middle order will come to bat depending on the match situation, what kind of bowlers are bowling at the time, which match-up works well,” Axar said.

“We've spoken about that, how we can all be floaters, be it coming in early or obviously finishing. This is not just for me, but for everyone from No. 3 and below, especially if they are in good touch in the nets. We will adjust accordingly. In T20Is, how you use your batters is so crucial, so this is an important factor in batting," he further added.

India’s squad for T20I series against England

Suryakumar Yadav (C), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (vc), Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk).