‘Why are you playing him?’ – Chopra questions Suryakumar's decision-making to give Axar lone over on tricky Gqeberha track

The first two T20Is against South Africa have seen Axar Patel bowl just an over each. This has resulted despite the pitches being quite favourable for spinners. With the frontline spinners, Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi, tasting ample success in the games played so far, the decision to underutilize Axar has come under the microscope.

India won the first T20I against South Africa and in the second T20I on Sunday they put up a score of 124 for the Proteas to chase. Varun Chakarvarthy's fifer put South Africa on a rough patch but Tristan Stubbs' 47 helped the hosts to level the series in a four-match T20I series. 

Former India cricketer, Aakash Chopra, was inclined to question the reason behind playing Axar. "What are we actually doing with Axar Patel? Why are you playing him? Give a little clarity. Axar Patel - one over at Kingsmead (Durban), and just one over here as well. On a pitch where six of the seven wickets were picked up by spinners, he bowled just one over,” shared Chopra in a video on his YouTube channel.

Chopra also shared that according to him, the fiasco during India’s batting which went down in the second T20I was less severe when compared to the mishandling of Axar.

"In my opinion, he is being underutilized as a resource. We are saying that you are playing three spinners, but you are unable to play them properly. I am not thinking much about the batting failure, but not bowling Axar Patel was an obvious mistake on Surya's part," Chopra added.

Also Read: SA vs IND 2024: Aakash Chopra lauds Varun Chakravarthy after five-for, analyses his bowling variation

He was unfortunate that he got run out: Chopra

Chopra pointed out that while Axar was hard-done-by to get run-out, it was clearly a case of an underwhelming effort by the top-order and the rest of the batters.

"In batting, you sent him up the order. He was unfortunate that he got run-out. No one else did a good job in batting, whether it was Sanju Samson at the start, or Abhishek Sharma's problems against the bouncers continuing," noted Chopra.

The cricketer-turned-commentator discussed some of the dismissals which the Indian batting order had to undergo. "He will have to acknowledge that problem. Suryakumar Yadav wasn't ready for the full ball. An excellent catch was taken (by David Miller) to dismiss Tilak Varma. Rinku Singh hit the ball straight above his head," he observed.

Axar, who was looking good during his stay at the crease, was run-out by backing up a tad much which saw him falling short of his crease after a shot drilled down the ground by Hardik Pandya brushed Nqabayomzi Peter’s fingers to crash into the stumps at the non-striker’s end. He was the fifth batter to fall for India.