Axar's accuracy a stepping stone to India's date with destiny

Axar Patel was one of the 11 beleaguered Indians on the field on that ill-fated night in Adelaide from a couple of years ago when England had given the Men in Blue an absolute hammering by 10 wickets. He could only watch the ball sail into the stands and was one of the six helpless bowlers who Jos Buttler took to the cleaners.

Cut to two years later on a late afternoon in Guyana on Thursday, Buttler threatened to give India a deja vu by going after Arshdeep Singh with three boundaries in his second over. Once a player of Buttler's caliber gets going, no total is safe.

However, Axar Patel came into the attack and struck on his very first ball. There wasn't going to be any more mayhem from Jos Buttler. This wasn't the India from a couple of years ago. This was a different Team India. This was a different Axar.

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Axar Patel's simple plans led to England's surrender

Axar didn't have a great T20 World Cup a couple of years ago and the performances understandably raised a question mark on his capability to play in that all-rounder's role. He picked up just three wickets in five matches at an economy rate of 8.62 and many believed he wouldn't have played had Ravindra Jadeja been fit.

However, the Axar Patel of 2024 was more confident with the exposure and the experience under his belt and knew he had to keep things simple and focus on his strength. A slow and skiddy wicket in Guyana would help bowlers with a flatter trajectory more and that's exactly what the left-arm spinner planned.

A 91.5 kmph ball, which is slower than what Axar generally bowls, pitched on a good length and just stopped enough in the surface to take a top edge off Buttler's bat and Rishabh Pant safely gobbled the catch. The idea from Buttler was to get on top of the new bowler early on, but Axar's accuracy won that bout.

Next came Jonny Bairstow, who often likes to stay leg-side of the bowl and smash it through the cover region against the left-arm spinner. Axar Patel bowled a quicker delivery than the one that got Buttler's wicket and let the pitch do the rest.

The 95 kmph ball pitched on a good length and went on with the arm, going through the gap between Bairstow's bat and pad and hitting the off-stump. It was the kind of delivery that gave Bairstow nightmares during the 2021 Test series when Axar burst onto the scene in red-ball cricket for India.

The two wickets from the left-arm spinner had caused enough panic in England's camp and that was seen in the way Moeen Ali was dismissed. Axar cramped Moeen for any room and the latter wandered out of his crease, only to be stumped by Pant.

While other bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav also chipped in with wickets, Axar's timely dismissals of Buttler and Bairstow were worth their weight in gold. Was it the first time he had made such a telling impact? Certainly not.

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Axar the unsung hero has gradually won team management's faith

Axar Patel won the Player of the Match for his sensational figures of 3/23 against England. However, there have been multiple other occasions where the left-arm spinner has been the unsung hero of this Indian team with the ball.

He has become crucial for India's balance of playing three spinners and Hardik Pandya as the third pacer. Axar's ability to bowl in the powerplay and remain economical has been instrumental in Rohit Sharma getting that flexibility about using the overs of Jasprit Bumrah sparingly alongside introducing Hardik in the attack.

In the T20 World Cup so far, Axar has picked up eight wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 6.88. His stats in powerplay show why he is such a vital member of this side, conceding just 42 runs in the six overs he has bowled with as many as 17 dot balls and three wickets.

While Kuldeep Yadav has done the bulk of the damage outside the powerplay in the Caribbean leg of the T20 World Cup, Axar has stepped up whenever Rohit needed to get some crucial overs in. His brilliant over to Imad Wasim against Pakistan showed how well he can bowl to a negative match-up. But arguably an even better performance came against Australia.

Chasing 206 to win, Travis Head had just smashed Kuldeep Yadav for a six over long-off on the last ball of his over. The pressure was on the Men in Blue as the Aussies needed 81 runs from eight overs with as many as eight wickets in hand. That equation is considered comfortably achievable in modern-day T20 cricket.

Ravindra Jadeja had just gone for 17 runs in his first over and had been hit for a series of reverse sweeps by Glenn Maxwell. Captain Rohit Sharma then fell back on Axar Patel to bowl the 13th over. Packing the square field on both sides, Axar bowled a sensational over with a flatter trajectory and hitting the good length, conceding just three singles. He pushed the ball across Head and cramped Maxwell for room.

The effect was seen at the other end as Maxwell tried to manufacture a shot out of nowhere and was cleaned up by Kuldeep. Marcus Stoinis had nailed as many as eight reverse sweeps in his knock against Scotland. However, his first reverse sweep in that innings found Hardik Pandya at short point, thanks to the flatter trajectory from Axar.

Those two overs from Axar were crucial as Bumrah had already bowled a couple of overs. Whenever India have wanted a left-arm spinner to step up in the T20 World Cup so far, it has been Axar and not Jadeja. That is a testament to the progress that Axar has made for someone who was once just considered an understudy to Jadeja.

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How can India use Axar Patel against South Africa?

Axar has another vital role to play in the final against South Africa as one would imagine him once again bowling in the powerplay. He is likely to come up against the likes of Quinton de Kock and opposition captain Aiden Markram with whom he has interesting match-ups.

De Kock being a southpaw has enjoyed a positive match-up hitting with the spin as he has scored 120 runs off 71 balls faced from Axar in T20s. However, he has been dismissed twice. Markram, on the other hand, has a rather poor record with five runs from six balls against Axar in T20s and a couple of dismissals. Given Markram's temperament, India will want Axar Patel to strike again.

Axar Patel has shared the dressing room with the likes of David Miller in the past at the Kings Xi Punjab and is teammates with Tristan Stubbs at the Delhi Capitals in the IPL. This would certainly have helped him get a lot more idea about their strengths and weaknesses. Not to forget, Axar's flat trajectory could make it tough for Heinrich Klaasen to play through the line.

While Axar the bowler has stepped up, India can extract a lot more from Axar the batter as well. The left-hander has shown enough batting pedigree across formats to have a reputation of someone who can tonk the spinners if given that role. India haven't got the best of Shivam Dube and could be tempted to bring in someone like Sanju Samson in the middle order.

Axar has already been sent as a floater earlier in the tournament against Pakistan. However, he could be handy in taking down the likes of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi in Barbados.

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India did manage to successfully bury the ghosts of Adelaide by handing England an absolute drubbing in Guyana. However, history beckons as South Africa stand between the Men in Blue and the first ICC Trophy after a long gap of eleven years.

While the Bumrahs and Kuldeeps of the world have deservedly received their plaudits, Axar Patel has quietly gone under the radar as a utility asset to this Indian juggernaut. He has a chance to write the last chapter of India's charge to the World Cup with an accuracy only he knows best.