“It’s absolute rubbish” - World Cup-winner slams Shubman Gill for poor captaincy calls in 1st ODI vs Australia

Former Indian cricketer and analyst Kris Srikkanth has slammed the Indian team management and Shubman Gill for their poor decisions in the first ODI against Australia at Perth Stadium on Sunday, October 19.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth has called the decision to send Axar Patel ahead of KL Rahul as ‘rubbish’. Moreover, he asserted that Rahul should bat ahead of Shryas Iyer in the overseas conditions in the 50-over format. 

"KL Rahul should play ahead of Shreyas Iyer. It was an absurd decision by the team and management. You are leaving him and looking somewhere else. If he scores, he scores a lot. Axar Patel going higher than KL is absolute rubbish," Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

"The point is not whether Axar played well or not. You have one of the best and classiest players in your XI. KL should have come in at five. If I were the captain, I would have even sent him at four, in fact. The conditions in the subcontinent are different from those in Australia. He should be playing the maximum number of balls,” he added.

Furthermore, the World Cup-winning member also reckoned that rain turned out to be the saviour for Australia in Perth. He also slammed the decision to send Nitish Kumar Reddy down the batting order. 

"By any chance, had they gone up to 160 and not lost more wickets, the DLS score would have been higher and probably things could have favored India. If we talk neutrally, rain actually saved them. Another mistake they made was not sending Nitish in after KL and Axar got out. You took him as a big hitter in the team, then put him in front. Don't go behind the left-right combination," he concluded.

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