When Axar Patel left the field at No. 4 with 15 overs remaining in the day’s play in the Mirpur Test last December in Bangladesh, India was in trouble.
Rahul Dravid, the batsman’s coach, and KL Rahul, the captain, did not view the left-handed batsman as a night watchman. He didn’t play like one either; instead, he made 34 runs, a knock that altered the course of the game, while swaggeringly punching off the back foot against the spinners.
Even though Ravichandran Ashwin would go on to win the match with an unbeaten 49, Axar was the one who ignited the change.
Those in the know claim that Axar told the captain and coach before he went out to bat that he will play his shots as and when the opportunity presents itself. He was caught at the boundary and out for 4 in the first innings, but he wished to continue in a similar way in the second.
Former India batsman and current assistant coach Mohammad Kaif isn’t shocked by Axar’s attitude. “He is so well-organized and relaxed. He doesn’t get tense whether he is batting or bowling. Those who play as if there is no crisis do well in times of crisis. It permits the skill set’s confidence to flow through.
Axar once lacked self-assurance regarding his skill set. Ricky Ponting, a former captain of Australia, is the coach of the Delhi Capitals, along with Kaif. But we’ll get to that soon.
Axar the batsman’s talent is evident in just two shots. Both arrived quickly on a challenging Feroz Shah Kotla surface during the second Test match against Australia. the fluid drive and the shot with the horizontal cut. One of the few lower-order batsmen who is equally skilled on both the front and back foot is Axar. Instead of the horizontal cut, subcontinental batsmen can typically play the drive and the back-foot vertical punch. Axar performs both.
It makes sense that Axar, who was primarily chosen as a left-arm orthodox spinner, can play in the top order for most teams, according to Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
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In the home Test series against Australia, Axar’s batting hasn’t been one-dimensional.
Axar advanced compactly to expel any poison when Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy kept landing them on a length near the off-stump line.
He would spring into action and unleash those back-foot punches and cuts whenever they erred in length. Axar would arch his upper body back to wallop the beautiful square-cuts when someone as talented as Pat Cummins threw it short. Axar wasn’t caught at the crease when Cummins attempted a full-length delivery from around the stumps but instead reeled off a beautiful off drive to the right of mid-off.
The balance at the crease and the fluid weight transfer show a not-so-common clarity of mind. He is inherently very compact and decisive on the off-side.
The impact of Ponting
In the IPL leg in Dubai in 2021, Ponting and Kaif are involved. Kaif remembers Axar as being eager to dismiss the label of “domestic player” and “useful contributor.” He desired to triumph in games.
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“I can still recall telling him that Jadeja had pointed out the way. What Jadeja did after the 2018 England tour to advance to the next level. Axar wanted to improve his batting technique. Kaif told the media, “We had paid a hefty price for him and were seeing him as an all-rounder who could finish games.
His leg-side game was a weakness, though, and the best opposition bowlers working the final four overs targeted it.
They would throw the ball at his body, catching him on the leg side. He hoped to tap those balls away for a single to the leg side at most. There wasn’t the full range.
Axar has previously discussed how conversations with Ponting improved his batting. The main topic of conversation was his shoulder.
Kaif remarked, “The front shoulder was a touch closed. “Ponting felt that his front shoulder needed to be opened up a little bit in order to open up his leg-side game and make it more fluid. In order to avoid being completely cut off by being too sideways, face more of the middle.
Axar was open to the modification. Axar and Kaif started working out more and more.
The main bowlers would have finished by the time he finished bowling at the nets and the top batsmen were finished, so it’s not as if he had been reluctant in the previous years. Throwdowns were chosen as the best method for resolving the “shoulder” issue. I would throw, mix it up with the short material at chest height, and then slip the longer one in. Axar appeared to be growing more at ease with the on-side shots.
When Rohit Sharma witnessed Axar repeatedly creaming Jasprit Bumrah and company over the leg side, he would get a close-up view of the change in the IPL. Remember the game in Dubai where Axar hit Ravindra Jadeja for sixes to defeat CSK in the decisive frame? Kif queries. “I recall how happy and assured he was of his performance when he returned from that game.”
Why was the turnaround time so short? “Because there wasn’t a significant change. His off-side strategy was already quite limited. He possessed drives and punchy shots. He is assured of his defence. His all-around batting changed once the realisation that he can actually be a good batsman, a finisher, and put in the hard work entered his zehen (being). The confidence in other aspects of the game increases significantly once what was viewed as a weakness by oneself is no longer that, according to Kaif.
Then, mental toughness turned into the key. He has a strong desire to succeed and is very ambitious. You can see him in the videos that the Delhi Capitals or other Indian teams release; they show both his on- and off-field persona. How much he would swindle Pant, his dear friend.
Axar of the Capitals talks about his formative years, when he wasn’t as serious about his game, in a buffering Instagram video. A coach had selected him for an academy to play with a leather ball after being impressed by his abilities in rubber-ball games. Axar began skipping it after a few days, going outside to play rubber-ball cricket with his friends. His parents were unaware. His father followed him one day and watched him play with friends after the coach revealed the information.
Axar’s father first asked him about his day after he arrived home.
“The coach made us run five rounds,” Axar would remark.
He was fired by his father for lying and not taking cricket seriously.
Axar claims that on that day, leather-ball cricket took precedence. “Cricket has been my only true adventure throughout my entire life, even at Ranji level and later,” he chuckles.
Similar to his father, his focus changed once Ponting made him aware that he can be a better batsman than he has settled for and after Kaif put in the hard work alongside him.
He previously stated that he was no longer content with 30–40 runs.
He has changed his way of thinking. At first glance, even with his bowling, you might think, “Oh what’s special, looks ordinary,” etc., but he is very conscious of it. Don’t worry; he is knowledgeable about everything he does, including the angles at which the ball should be released, how to make it go straight or turn, and how to do both with essentially the same motion. And all of this comes with a general feeling of relaxation,” Kaif said.
He has come a long way in terms of his batting. Axar is not a middle-order batsman, as Lyon recently stated.
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