Slamming his 80th half-century, Indian batting star Virat Kohli played a key role in India’s five-wicket win over New Zealand in the rain-hit first ODI on Wednesday in Auckland, helping the side take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. Virat Kohli, who has retired from Tests and T20Is, showed his ability to shoulder responsibility in crunch times because the rest of India’s batting attack struggled to make a major impact.
Kohli stood out with a brilliant innings of 74 runs off 51 deliveries during India’s chase. Rohit Sharma failed to open his account, departing for a duck, while captain Shubman Gill scored only 37 runs. Shreyas Iyer, batting at No. 4, could contribute only 15 runs. However, the major point was Axar Patel's promotion to the fifth position in the batting order.
The all-rounder was sent in ahead of experienced batters KL Rahul and Naman Dhir, but he couldn’t make any impact going back without scoring a single run. Meanwhile, the move did not go down well with former India cricketer Dodda Ganesh, who questioned the management's decision to send Axar Patel ahead of KL Rahul.
"Axar Patel ahead of KL Rahul at No. 5 despite knowing what KL has done at that position. When will we learn? #NZvIND," Dodda Ganesh wrote in a post on X.
In the match, New Zealand were bundled out for a low total of 185 in 40.2 overs following a magnificent bowling attack led by Arshdeep Singh and Gurnoor Brar, who both took four and three wickets respectively to demolish New Zealand.