Occasionally, Rishabh Pant can be heard chirping from behind the stumps, “Jayasuriya, left mey ja,” referring to Axar Patel. That’s his childhood nickname, earned from his bludgeoning efforts on the flood-lit tennis-ball circuit in Nadiad, 60 kms away from Ahmedabad.
The man who never wanted to bowl in his growing up years, but would play for India for his left-arm spin, found the biggest stage to relive his childhood highs. Incidentally, Axar was the last person to be inked in the 15-member squad as the selectors tussled between him and Washington Sundar but in the end they made the right call to trust Axar to come good.
But it’s an entirely different matter to do it in a World Cup final under pressure, with the big guns Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav back in the hut. To arch back to one of the world’s premier fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and crunch a length ball behind the sight screen as he did in the 14th over is the stuff of dreams – and Axar Patel would hold his pose and soak up the moment. India have borne the brunt of counter-attacking World Cup knocks under immense pressure against them in the past – Aravinda de Silva’s absolute gem in the 1996 semis springs to mind, and it would have given the fans great joy that someone landed a blow for them, this time around.
The game had dramatically swung towards South Africa when he walked in, well ahead of his usual position, promoted ahead of Shivam Dube. In the middle was Virat Kohli who had started off like a runaway express but now had to drop anchor in the absence of Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav.
Not everyone would have been surprised at what followed. Mohammad Kaif, the assistant coach at Delhi Capitals in 2021 and who saw Ricky Ponting help Axar correct his only flaw that existed then – his leg-side strokeplay, has always been a backer.
“He is so sorted, chilled out. He doesn’t get tense whether he is batting or bowling. In a crisis situation, those who play as if there is no crisis, do well. It allows the confidence in the skill set to flow through,” Kaif had told this newspaper.
Axar calmly ushered the first delivery he faced, a gentle one on the pads from Rabada, to the square-leg boundary with a neat clip. He then faced three deliveries off the last ball of the Powerplay that Aiden Markram slipped in quietly and effectively for just six runs. But Axar wouldn’t let him get away again when Markram bowled the 8th over. Axar slammed a slog-swept six – and that was probably the shot that announced his and India’s intent: Kohli to continue with the anchor and Axar to do the damage.
In the next over against South Africa’s World-Cup star Keshav Maharaj, he crash-landed another slog sweep into the stands at cow corner. Markram scrambled and threw his next spinner, the chinaman Shamsi into the mix. No luck, as Axar went downtown, pumping him for another six. Soon, he was in that freeze-frame moment against Rabada with that stunning six of the World Cup final.
“He used to hit the ball very hard. Pura Jayasuriya ke tarah (Just like Jayasuriya). Everyone wanted him to play for their team but as he got selected for the district and later for Gujarat age-group teams, he realised that he would have to give up tennis-ball cricket,” Axar’s cousin had told this newspaper.
Axar is a very self-aware individual, be it his batting or bowling. His batting kept improving as his Test average shows. He also continues to work on his batting. In the 2021 IPL in Dubai, he worked very hard with the coach Ricky Ponting to correct one area of his game that has worked wonders: his leg-side play.
“I remember telling him that Jadeja had shown the path. How Jadeja went to the next level after the 2018 tour of England. Axar wanted to take his batting up to the next level.”
However, he had a weakness — his leg-side game which was targeted by the IPL bowlers. “They would bowl at his body, and get him caught down the leg side. At best, he was looking to tap those balls away for a single to the leg side. That full range wasn’t there,” Kaif said.
“The front shoulder was a touch closed,” Kaif said. “Ponting felt that to open up his leg-side game, make it more fluent, the front shoulder needs to be opened up a touch. Face more of mid-on rather than be cut off completely by being too side-on. Hours of practice ensued and it became a natural part of him that he even hit Bumrah in that IPL over on the on side for sixes.
It wasn’t a perfect day, though, as Heinrich Klassen bashed him for 24 runs in an over to tilt the momentum South Africa’s way, but his team-mates did the job to ensure his batting effort wouldn’t go to waste.
When he was young, his mother and grandmother had objected to him playing cricket as they felt he was too small. But Axar was stubborn and moved up in the ranks rather quickly. Now, with this cameo in a World Cup final that would rank with the best, Axar Patel, the self-made cricketer who has squeezed out every inch of his talent, has lived up to that childhood moniker: “Nadiad ka Jayasuriya.”