Rohit Sharma reveals the motive for promoting Axar Patel up the order

India`s Axar Patel plays a shot during the first one-day international (ODI) cricket match between India and England at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Pic/AFP

Team India skipper Rohit Sharma stated that the motive behind promoting Axar Patel at number five in the first ODI was to maintain the left-right hand combination and to utilize his improved batting skills.

Chasing a modest target of 249 after Ravindra Jadeja (3-26) and debutant Harshit Rana (3-53) helped bundle out England for less than 250, India lost Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal with 19 runs on the board. Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer (59) added 94 runs for the third wicket. But the crucial decision to promote Axar Patel paid rich dividends as the allrounder scored a superb 52 and shared a 108-run partnership with Gill, who top-scored with 87, as India won the match by four wickets with 11 overs to spare.

"We want a lefty in the middle, it is simple. We know they have a couple of spinners who are going to bowl into the left-handers and we wanted one out there. Axar is an improved batter in the last couple of years, we got to see that today. We needed a partnership and Gill and Axar batted really well," said Rohit Sharma in the post-match presentation on Thursday.

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Following the win, Rohit Sharma said that he was pretty happy with the victory as Team India played a 50-over match after a long gap.

"Pretty happy because we knew we were coming after a long time to this format. We wanted to quickly regroup and understand what is to be done. Didn't start off well with their openers putting pressure on us, but the way we came back was superb.

"This is a slightly longer format where you have time to come back. When things start to go away from you, it doesn't mean it will keep going away," said Rohit, who himself failed to make the most of the opportunity and could score only two runs.

Rohit Sharma credited the bowlers for setting up the win in the first ODI against England.

"Credit to the bowlers, everyone chipped in. It was important for us to keep going, we took wickets at crucial times, and the energy on the field was brilliant as well," he said.

Following the win, Rohit Sharma said he was not thinking about the Champions Trophy 2025 and just wanted to use these three matches to make sure his team was doing the right things.

"Nothing specific, overall as a team I want to make sure we keep on doing the right things. Try and tick every box there is to be ticked in bowling and batting. Did that pretty much though I felt we shouldn't have lost the wickets at the end," concluded Rohit.

India next takes on England in the second ODI at Cuttack three days from now and hopes to seal the ODI series too after winning the five-match T20I series 4-1.

(With IANS Inputs)