Aus vs India: Axar Patel serves as man for all seasons in fourth T20I

Axar Patel is turning out to be the new Ravindra Jadeja of Indian cricket. Despite losing the vice-captaincy of the T20I team to Shubman Gill ahead of the Asia Cup, the spinning allrounder proved his worth under challenging conditions at the Carrara Oval, Queensland to emerge as Player of the Match in the fourth match of the India-Australia T20I series on Thursday.

After his crucial unbeaten 21 (off 11 balls) helped India cross the 150-mark, Axar picked up 2/20 while Washington Sundar and Varun Chakravarthy also exploited the conditions well to leave the hosts 48 runs short of a 168-run target. Up 2-1 after four matches with the first match being abandoned due to rain, the T20I world champions have a chance to wrap up the series in the final at Brisbane on Saturday.  

The Men in Blue were not exactly their ruthless selves in the past three matches, with Gill not quite doing justice to his new role as T20 opening partner to Abhishek Sharma, who seemed to be carrying on with his explosive form in the Asia Cup in September. A tweaking of the batting order, where only the two openers will be the constant, did not quite pay off on Thursday with both Shivam Dube (promoted to number three) and Tilak Verma — down at number five — failing to deliver on an unusually sluggish wicket.

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Axar, who made a comeback to the Test squad after 2024 for the upcoming home series against South Africa, helped India get crucial breakthroughs as he dismissed Matthew Short LBW and later cleaned up Josh Inglis to bring his team back into the game. Elaborating on his mingy bowling figures of 4-0-20-2, Axar revealed that he had analysed that the pitch was on the slower side and had unexpected bounce, which he used to his advantage while defending their total.

Patel also mentioned that he’s ready to take up any role for the team, with a focus on impactful performances. ‘’Yeah, I had a chance when I got to bat at number 7. I looked at the wicket and spoke to the batters. The message was that the pitch is offering unexpected bounce and it is on the slower side. I just held my position and hit the right lengths.

"I think where team needs me, that’s my favoured position. If I come up with an impactful performance for my team, that’s best for me. I don't think number 6 or 7 is my favoured position. Whatever my teams needs me to, I just go and do that,” he said during the post-match presentation.

Asked about his bowling plan, Axar said: “I was thinking what is the batter’s strength. If they are trying to hit me, I can bowl a good length and if they are sweeping me, I can bowl a bit full. I was going at the stumps at all times. This worked for me today.”