Allrounder Axar Patel emerged the unsung hero in India’s T20 World Cup win against Pakistan. He not only provided the depth in the batting but also got in the flexibility factor when he was elevated to the No.4 position to stitch a partnership with Rishabh Pant. Not only that, he also impressed with the ball, especially the crucial 16th over when he gave away only two runs by silencing Imad Wasim, who had the shorter leg-side boundary and favourable 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, considering India have chosen to go with an offspinner instead of both of them so as to be able 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 a 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 will remain flexible. It will depend on the game situation, conditions, bowlers, combinations, match-ups. My brief was not at all to slog widly. Just to play normal cricketing 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 to two left-arm orthodox spinners mean 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 also, 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, he gives you that depth as well in terms of the batting, which was pretty evident in the last game. Because we had to promote someone like him, we had to take a chance. He played a very critical role for the team, got those runs at that stage, because the ball was challenging at that situation. It was seaming, swinging,” he said.
There will be a time later in the tournament when Kuldeep will be called upon because Mhambrey said the batting depth is not a non-negotiable. “I don’t think so,” he said when asked if they were always going to go with a No. 8 batter. “I think it’s (the) surface. It’s purely on the opponents, purely on the surface. If you feel, maybe on a surface, you need one extra bowler. We will go with that combination.”
This, however, raises a question in case India feel the need to play three seamers but also need more penetration in the spin department or need to counter left-handed batters. In that scenario, Axar could be the better fit, considering the runs he scored against Pakistan only add more pressure on Jadeja.
Mhambrey said that the team isn’t worried about Jadeja’s batting form. “It’s a team game, right?” he said when asked if there have been conversations around Jadeja’s batting.
“It’s going to be 11 guys. You really don’t expect all of them to come into form (at the same time). It’s a long tournament. Someone like Jadeja, who’s so vastly experienced, he just needs one game out there to just get his groove back. And we know that with the skills that he has and the experience, he’s going to go ahead and he’s going to win you games,” he said.