Fascinating to see Axar Patel carve his own niche and make his own path: Dinesh Karthik
Former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik has expressed his 'fascination' with Axar Patel's awe-inspiring all-round performances during the ongoing Test series against New Zealand. Karthik commended Patel for carving his own path in the side, not only with his bowling but with the bat as well.
The left-hander, along with Mayank Agarwal, bailed India out of trouble when Ajaz Patel dismissed Wriddhiman Saha and Ravichandran Ashwin in two consecutive balls.
Axar Patel managed to muster a 67-run partnership with Mayank Agarwal. In the process, he smashed his maiden Test half-century and helped his team reach a total of 325 in the first innings.
Dinesh Karthik, on Cricbuzz Live, spoke about Axar Patel's resurgence as an all-rounder. While citing Patel's previous two knocks as examples, the 37-year-old praised his batting capabilities and said:
"It's just fascinating that Axar has always looked at as the understudy to (Ravindra) Jadeja in many ways but to see him carve his own niche, make his own path, always with the ball but now showing glimpses of what he can do with the bat. Kanpur 2nd innings, here in the first innings - just showed how he is capable with the bat. When he did bat he looked solid."
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"More selection conundrums for Indian selectors" - Simon Doull after Axar Patel's spectacular start in Tests
Former Kiwi pacer Simon Doull highlighted that there will be more selection conundrums for the Indian selectors if Axar Patel continues to put on impressive performances.
The 52-year old also accentuated the fact that Axar Patel was recently retained by his IPL franchise Delhi Capitals. While mentioning that the all-rounder has been a key player for his T20 team, Doull said that Axar is now a quality Test match figure, especially with the ball. Simon Doull said at Cricbuzz Live.
''14 half-centuries and a hundred in first-class cricket with an average of 33 (Axar Patel's first-class red-ball numbers). I think Axar is a gun in the field as well. Probably not quite at Jadeja level but he belongs here. This is a guy that's heading up a franchise and is one of the key players when it comes to domestic T20 in the IPL."
Doull added:
"He's a quality test match figure now with the ball. And if he starts to show this with the bat, there'll be more selection conundrums out there for this Indian selection panel."
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India have the luxury of having three world-class spinning all-rounders in Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. With the rise of Axar Patel in red-ball cricket, there will surely be a lot of selection headaches for Rahul Dravid and Co. when the team travels to South Africa later this month.