Team India's call to leave Axar Patel on the bench for the T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8s match against South Africa backfired on Sunday as the defending champions faced a heavy 76-run defeat at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Axar, the designated vice-captain, was made to sit out as the side preferred to have Washington Sundar in the playing XI just due to his favourable match-up against the left-handers. However, the all-rounder from Tamil Nadu failed to make any impact on the game, disappointing with both bat and ball.
Several fans and pundits criticised the decision to play Sundar ahead of Axar, and, to no one's surprise, the question of making this call was asked to Ryan ten Doeschate, the assistant coach, when he came to speak to the media at the post-match press conference.
Axar was rested for the last group stage match against the Netherlands, and it seemed he would return to the lineup for the South Africa match. However, the management decided to stick with the same lineup as the match against the Dutch.
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Ten Doeschate said that the call to play Washington ahead of Axar was just down to match-ups, and the decision to leave the latter on the bench doesn't say anything about Axar's talent and capability, as everyone within the camp knows how big a match-winner he truly is.
{{/usCountry}}Ten Doeschate said that the call to play Washington ahead of Axar was just down to match-ups, and the decision to leave the latter on the bench doesn't say anything about Axar's talent and capability, as everyone within the camp knows how big a match-winner he truly is.
{{/usCountry}}“Yeah, we spent so much time deliberating about the 11, the last couple of days. And I guess the only way that it sort of didn't play into our hands is if we did have the ideal start like we did today with getting Quinton and Rickelton out so early. We were kind of looking at matchups more in the middle. And then obviously, someone has to give way. So, do we leave a batter out and get another bowler in? In hindsight, that looks like the right decision?” ten Doeschate told reporters.
“But obviously, playing it forward and making decisions at the time, we felt we needed Rinku, as an eighth batsman, so to speak. And the decision was based on that. But certainly, it's not to take anything away from Axar and his leadership and how important he is to the team. But look we face almost every week to try to squeeze 11 places into 15, We're finding tricky. And we need to make sure we get that spot on for the next two Super 8 games,” he added.
However, ten Doeschate also said that dropping Axar wasn't easy, as he is the designated vice-captain, and he is hopeful the all-rounder will understand the rationale behind the call.
“As I alluded to earlier, in our analysis, we thought the biggest threat was going to come from Quinton, Ryan Rickelton and David Miller. And when you can only choose one of the two, we thought someone who can bowl in the power play, like I mentioned, or Axar obviously occasionally bowls in the power play, but we feel we've got Washy to a point where he's found a way of being effective in the power play and he obviously didn't bowl in the power play tonight so it looks like we've purely gone on who's going to bowl through the middle in which case you would choose Axar. But the strategy was around that and I think in a tournament like this you want or you expect all players to understand that the best intentions we're trying to pick the best 11 to win the game and I hope Axar takes in the same spirit as well,” he added.
“If either of them had played it, it would have been the same role. If we had coupled down, we'd tend to use those guys as a sort of standard operating procedure, where you try to extend the link before you get to Hardik and Shivam. And if Axar had played in that team today, he would have walked in the same position at whatever we were, 20 for 3,” he added.
How did Washington perform?
Washington had a poor day against the Proteas, giving away 17 runs in the two overs he bowled. The figures might be respectable, but he didn't get anything out of the surface and wasn't able to build any sort of pressure on David Miller and Dewald Brevis, despite South Africa losing three wickets inside the powerplay.
Then with the bat, he came ahead of Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube, but only managed 11 runs while playing at No.5.
The India assistant coach was also asked about the possible reasons for backing Sundar for the game against South Africa, given that he did not start in all the IPL games for his franchise, the Gujarat Titans, in the last season. To this, ten Doeschate said that franchise cricket cannot be compared to international games.
“I don't think that's necessarily relevant. You've got to look up the makeup of his IPL team. We know what Washi's done while he's been with the Indian team, and we judge him on that. And, a big part of the strategy today was how well he bowled in the T20 when he bowled in the power play, and that was obviously a big part of the strategy today, going with three out and out bowlers plus Washi and two guys making up the fifth bowler,” said ten Doeschate.
“Winning that power play was going to be super important, and we envisaged bowling two overs in the power play, not knowing that they were going to be 30 for 3, and then obviously gives you the luxury of slotting somewhere in the order with the bat as well. So, on balance, that was the decision, and given the fact that we thought the majority of the threat was going to come from the left-handers. And as I said, we wanted to play the extra batter, so it left us with one choice between Washington and Axar, and today we chose to go with Washie,” he added.