Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai
“He’s a very experienced campaigner,” said Suryakumar Yadav, in praise of Axar Patel at the press conference after he put on another of those invaluable performances with the ball against Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup. “He’s been around the Indian team for a very long time. He knows his job really well. His plans are very clear. Whenever I see him at practice, he bowls a lot to the left-handers because that’s a proper match-up. You feel if a left-handed batter is walking in, you can’t bowl a left-arm spinner. But he practices more against the left-hand batters.”
For a left-arm spinner, bowling to a left-hand batter is the toughest matchup. Especially in the shortest format, a left-hand batter will always be eyeing the aggressive route against a left-arm spinner. But Axar is one of those few slow left-arm orthodox bowlers who seems to have carved out a way in the midst of a tough matchup.
On Sunday, he dismissed Fakhar Zaman, one of the left-hand batters in the Pakistan line-up. The essence of that wicket was how Axar slowed it up while bowling to Fakhar and shifted to a round-the-wicket angle. It was a good 8-10 kph slower than his normal speeds. He also watched the feet of the batter and bowled it wider of off stump.
The way Axar has upskilled his game can be seen through his numbers as well. In his last 13 T20Is, Axar averages under 20 while bowling to the left-handers in T20Is. Just transport yourself back to 2023, and he was averaging 37 as far as that particular matchup is concerned.
Just dig through Axar’s short spells further and you would observe that he has started to impart some overspin too. That was evidenced by the wicket of Salman Agha, the Pakistan skipper. The delivery bounced just enough, ensuring that Agha couldn’t execute the slog-sweep.
In those unknown workshops called the practice arenas, Axar has undoubtedly improved brick by brick. So much so that he has come a long way from the days when Sunil Gavaskar had basically labelled him as ‘slow nothing’. “He just rolls the ball, he does not have the flight and his deliveries are very predictable,” Gavaskar had said to NDTV. “He does not turn the ball unless the pitch is favourable. He is slightly slower than medium pace.”
Axar’s utility to the team extends far beyond just his much-improved bowling. He is also a fine batter down the order. He can also be used as a floater, especially when the matchup is about spin bowling. His T20I strike rate of almost 140 suggests that he can wear different hats as a batter.
If India are to win the Asia Cup and then defend the T20 World Cup, the man who seems to raise the bar by fractions and percentages all the time will have to again wear his utility hat.
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