Axar Patel emerged as the unsung hero in India’s T20 World Cup win against Pakistan. He not only provided the depth in the barting but also got into the flexibility factor when he was elevated to the No. 4 position to form a partnership with Rishabh Pant. Not only that, he was also impressed with the ball, especially in the crucial 16th over when he gave away only two runs by silencing Imad Wasim, who had the shorter leg-side boundary and favorable wind.
Axar’s selection in the squad wasn’t conventional, let alone the XI. With Ravindra Jadeja already an indispensable part of the team, Axar, also a left-arm orthodox and an equally handy batter, has done his part to feature in the starting XIs alongside Jadeja. This is a recent change in strategy from the team management perspective, considering India has chosen to go with an off-spinner instead of both of them so as to be able to play the match-ups well.
After the match, Axar revealed that he wasn’t told to pinch-hit or pinch-anchor when he was promoted up the order, and he responded with an 18-ball 20 to put up a crucial 39-run partnership with Rishabh Pant. “From the first match, the captain has said only the openers’ slot is fixed. He had said in the team meeting that the rest of the batting order would remain flexible.
It will depend on the game situation, conditions, bowlers, combination nations, and match-ups. My brief was not at all slog-wide. Just to play normal cricket shots. The more I could face the new ball, the easier it would get for Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube,” he said. The decision to field two left-arm orthodox spinners means that the wrist spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, are warming the bench.
India’s bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey, said Kuldeep understands and appreciates that his sitting out is not an assessment of his skill but a question of team balance. The pitches in New York have been extremely seam-friendly. It has created both a need to play all three seamers and also to add some depth to the batting.
“It will depend on the opponents; it will depend on the surface. I think with Axar as well, if you look at the IPL. He’s bowled very well. I think that’s an advantage that we have out here for us. In terms of the performance and the rhythm, in terms of the confidence, he’s up there.” “Dropping a seamer and playing a spinner (can happen) looking at the conditions, but also the other thing that Axar does is that he gives you that depth as well in terms of the batting, which was pretty evident in the last game.