India's recent tendency to push a left-handed floater up the order to break the right-handed hegemony of the top-five has fierce backing from head coach Gautam Gambhir. India began life in ODIs under Gambhir with a floater walking at two-drop in Sri Lanka last July. The three ODIs saw Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube and Rishabh Pant get a go each from that position while the incumbent No.4 Shreyas Iyer was pushed down. The urge to break the monotony meant Axar Patel walked out at No.5 in the second fixture where Dube fell for a duck. More than six months on, Axar kept his top-order spot and batted at No.5 in the first two ODIs against England,
ENGLAND TOUR OF INDIA, 2025
'That's the way cricket is meant to be played' - Gambhir on left-right combinations
Axar scored 52 and 41* against England at No.5. © BCCI
