Perennially an excellent defensive spin bowling option, the earnest cricketer is also a much-improved hitter with the bat for T20Is.
Anticipating Glenn Maxwell to hit the top gear and play his trademark sweep shot immediately in the rain-marred Nagpur T20I, Axar Patel asked Indian skipper Rohit Sharma for one men each behind square on either side.
The left-arm spinner covered for the sweep and the reverse before entering a one-on-one clash with the Australian batting maverick, ensuring he had the field to nullify both of Maxwell’s statement shots at the beginning of his innings.
Axar knew Maxwell wouldn’t be fazed by any field setting given the match was reduced into an 8-over affair on a wet outfield, especially not with a spinner bowling to him. But he pragmatically kept some assurance for himself, before unveiling the outfox trick.
With his two favourite shots to counter spin cut by the field, Maxwell, whose game is built on manipulating the bowling through adventurous strokeplay, had to aim in front of the wicket now. Expecting Axar to bowl full and straight with pace to cramp him, he committed to a shot over mid-on.
But Axar unleashed a bluff at Maxwell, delivering one that was just short and slow enough to evade his downswing but also full and quick enough in where it pitched to leave him with no late adjustments possible. The ball duly crashed onto the stumps. That the track had some dampness in it helped, but Maxwell was mainly out-Maxwelled by India’s wolf in the sheep’s clothing.
Even this was only the tip of the ice-burg, brief but affluential example of the bowler Axar Patel has been: extremely accurate, and consistent, with an indecipherable mix of arm-balls from the one that turns away from the right-hander. He accentuates the impact of what commentators call the ‘straight ball’ with sharp usage of the angles, slingy action, height, pace, no discernible change in direction of rotations imparted on the ball and minimal but effective changes in the field.
These traits have made him near impossible to tackle on Indian pitches in Test cricket, where the ball grips and multiplies his impact value. But even in T20, played by and large on flat decks, he has managed to replicate his ploy with distinction, attaining a strong leash on run-scoring.
The ongoing T20I series against Australia has seen India concede above 11 an over as a collective bowling unit, with Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel and Bhuvneshwar Kumar taken for plenty. Axar has been in a league of his own, operating at an ER of 5 with spells of 3/17 and 2/13. No bowler from either side has taken as many wickets and bowled with such precision and control. It begs belief the bowler got the chance to bowl in this series only because Ravindra Jadeja hit a knee injury.
Despite his qualities, with India heavily invested in Yuzvendra Chahal and boasting of great R Ashwin in their armoury, Axar has been a rare presence in India’s T20I attacks over the years, playing only 28 matches since his debut in 2015. The bowler has taken nearly a wicket per game while going for a measly 7.11 an over on mostly true batting surfaces. Among regular Indian bowlers with a minimum of ten outings in games involving Axar, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar (7.06) can claim to be more economical.
The IPL has seen Axar exercise his influence on matches a lot more frequently. Perennially a strong defensive bowling option, the left-arm spinner has a career IPL economy rate of 7.25 after 122 matches with 101 wickets to his name.
Of Axar’s nine IPL campaigns, in only three he has gone for more than eight an over, none of which have come since 2018. A period in which he has also emerged as a solid powerplay option: the spinner has had an overall ER of 7.07 in this timeframe, which rises to only 7.27 inside the field-restriction phase.
Yet for all his brilliance with the ball, it is the rise of Axar Patel the powerhitter down the order that has set him up for a potential career transformation.
With Jadeja ruled out of the T20 World Cup plans, Axar is staring at a critical set of few months, where the upsurge in his boundary-hitting capabilities over the past two seasons have paved way for an unprecedented opportunity: the chance to prove his indispensability at No.6-7 and own the spin allrounder’s slot in T20Is going forward.
There maybe doubts cast on his pace-handling capabilities still – why, India didn’t immediately give him the nod with Jadeja injured in the Asia Cup ahead of the Australian World Cup – but there is an evident shift in the player’s boundary-hitting prowess, enabled by a promotion to end-over aggressor’s duties with Delhi Capitals.
Always rated for his promise with the bat, the 28-year-old has now taken his big-shot making to the next stage: he had a tournament strike rate of 151.66 in IPL 2022 with an average of 45.50. When Axar smashed his runs at 140.12 in IPL 2017, he couldn’t build on it with following seasons of similar success. But this feels different, in that he is growing not just in his scoring options but also his ability to identify which bowlers to unveil them against.
Also Read – Have we seen the last of Ravindra Jadeja in T20Is?
This was evident in the way he approached a difficult run-chase in Trinidad during the ODI series in August. Walking into bat with India needing over 10 an over, Axar showcased his improved range and skill, and strong temperament under pressure, hitting an unbeaten 64 off 35 to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Axar didn’t get an immediate chance to build on those gains with Jadeja returning for the Asia Cup, but the latter’s knee surgery has reopened the door for him. Giving him a chance to be the full-stop replacement to India’s like-for-like incumbent, whose injury spree may lead India to prioritise only the longer versions of the game with him.
If that does happen, India will look with hope in Axar’s direction, desperate for him to establish a sustained partnership with Hardik Pandya down the batting order but also to shoulder the fifth-bowler’s responsibilities with him.
Axar has always been an upgrade with the ball to Jadeja in this format, now he has the chance to prove he is his adequate plug with the bat as well.
India do not necessarily need to unveil Axar at 6-7 in the order, they can also use him up as a floater to counter spin. Why, they’ve tended to send him ahead of Dinesh Karthik, India’s best end-overs assaulter against pace. Either way, the chance for Axar Patel to own a place of incumbency for himself couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
Life’s a bumpy ride, it very rarely throws such opportunities to good people. Now that he has one, it’s upto Axar to maximise it. Go well, Bapu!!
