The decision to promote Axar Patel when India were struggling at 34/3 in the 2024 T20 World Cup final proved to be a masterstroke. His 72-run stand with Virat Kohli earned India a match-winning total.

At 26/3 on Sunday, India faced a similar situation in Ahmedabad. However, Washington Sundar, who replaced Axar, failed to deliver. The decision to bring in Washington for Axar was always going to be debateable since the former hadn’t delivered consistently in the shortest format.

Of the 15 matches that Gujarat Titans played last season, Washington featured in only six, including three of the seven games at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

India vice-captain Axar, on the other hand, has been a regular with Delhi Capitals. He had been rested against the Netherlands to give Washington a run in a low-stakes fixture. However, the decision to ignore Axar, popularly known as ‘Bapu’ on his home turf, came as a surprise.

Ravichandran Ashwin has questioned the move to leave out Axar, who he termed as the Most Valuable Player.

“... In such ICC campaigns, the more stable you can keep the team, the better,” Ashwin said. “I agree 100 per cent that you have to use Washington Sundar against left-handers; you have to play him, I agree with all that. But Axar Patel has been your MVP in T20 cricket. Let’s not forget what Axar Patel has done.

“In the previous World Cup, in the situation against South Africa, in which India was in the chase, Axar Patel came in under the same circumstances. He stitched a partnership with Virat Kohli, and India crossed 170. Of course, Kohli’s experience was there, but Axar is not inferior. If India had a few wickets in hand and stability in the middle overs, they would have chased the target down,” said the former off-spinner.

Axar’s absence was the theme at the press conference and assistant coach Ryan
ten Doeschate tried to justify the decision.

“I don’t think it’s as straightforward as that,” Ten Doeschate said. “In our analysis, we felt the biggest threats were going to be Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton and David Miller. When you can only pick one of the two options, we leaned towards someone who could bowl in the Powerplay. Axar can bowl in the Powerplay occasionally, of course. But we feel we’ve got Washington to a point where he’s found a way to be effective in that phase.”

India didn’t use Washington in the Powerplay overs, as they went Arshdeep Singh (three overs), Jasprit Bumrah (two) and Varun Chakravarthy (one).

“But the strategy was built around that initial assessment,” Ten Doeschate said. “In a tournament like this, you want and expect players to understand that every decision is made with the best intentions: to pick the strongest XI for that particular game. I hope Axar sees it in that spirit as well.”

Clearly, the gamble to play Washington didn’t pay off on Sunday.