Introduction
Axar Patel was born on 20th January 1994 in Nadiad, Gujarat. Standing at 6 feet, he represents the Gujarat cricket team in domestic cricket tournaments. He took a five-wicket haul in his debut test against the England cricket team which we will be discussing later. Now, let us discuss his domestic career.
Axar Patel Domestic Career
He has played in first-class as well as List A cricket for the Gujarat team.
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First-class Career
He has played 40 matches till now in first-class cricket. He has made 1600+ runs in them with an average of 34.2 while his top score has been 110*.
As for the number of centuries, they are one and also, he has scored 13 half-centuries. While as for his bowling, he has taken 141 wickets. His best bowling performance in an inning has been 7/54.
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List A Career
In the 133 List A matches played by him, he scored 2000+ runs with a decent average of 30.4. He is yet to score a century in List A cricket but has managed to hit nine half-centuries. As for his performance as a bowler, he has taken 169 wickets with his career-best being 6/43.
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T20 Career
In 151 T20 matches, he has scored 1695 runs with an average of 21.7 while he has smashed just a couple of half-centuries. While on the other hand, he has also taken 127 wickets with a career-best of 4/21.
Axar Patel ODI Debut
Patel made his ODI debut on 15th June 2014 against the Bangladesh cricket team. He bowled ten overs while taking a wicket. But he didn’t get a chance to bat. India did win the match though. Bangladesh had won the toss and had decided to bat first.
They put up a decent total of 272 runs. Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim (59 runs) and Shakib Al Hasan (52 runs) made half-centuries while Anamul Haque and Mahmudullah too scored 44 and 41 runs respectively. India was given a revised target of 150 runs as per the DLS method to be achieved in 26 overs.
India managed to chase the set target in 24.5 overs thanks to Robin Uthappa‘s half-centuries (50 runs) and Ajinkya Rahane (64 runs). For Axar, it was an average debut, but the great thing was that he did make a small contribution towards India’s win.
Axar Patel Test Debut
He has played just one Test for India till now. Axar made his international test debut on 13th February 2021 against the England cricket team in Chennai. He scored five runs in India’s first innings while he took two wickets in the first innings of the English.
In the second Indian innings, he made just seven runs. But his real contribution came in when the English were chasing a massive target of 482. He took five wickets and was instrumental in the win of the Indian cricket team.
He made what we would like to refer to as a dream debut. However, we do know that he could have performed well in the batting department. He took the crucial wicket of Joe Root in the first innings of the English and took his wicket again in the second innings.
Hopefully, he will have a fruitful test career and will keep helping India win many more matches.
Axar Patel T20I Debut
His T20I debut happened on 17th July 2015 in Harare against Zimbabwe cricket team. He didn’t get a chance to bat, but he managed to take three wickets while bowling and was also quite economical. As for the match, India had won the toss and had decided to bat first.
India finished their innings after scoring 178 runs. Thanks to the top-order batsmen’s performance, they were able to put up such a strong total. The bowlers of Zimbabwe also gave away 25 extra runs.
While chasing the target, Zimbabwe did have a great start, but then they kept losing their wickets at a regular interval and ended up at the score of just 124 runs.
Harbhajan Singh too took two wickets. The batsmen of Zimbabwe kept trying in the last overs even when they knew their team had no chance of winning. Overall, a decent T20I debut for Axar Patel.
Axar Patel IPL Debut
Mumbai Indians had indeed signed him for the 2013 season of the IPL, but he wasn’t given a chance to play a single match. In the 2014 edition of the tournament, he made his debut on 18th April 2014 against CSK while playing for the KXIP. He took one wicket in this match (that of Brendon McCullum) and scored just two runs as a batsman.
CSK had won the toss and had decided to bat first. Their decision turned out to be great as they went on the score a total of 205 runs. Both of their openers, Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum scored 66 and 67 runs respectively with a strike rate which was about 150.
But KXIP did the unthinkable and chased the target in just 18.5 overs. The hero of this win was Glenn Maxwell who hit 95 runs in just 43 balls with a whopping strike rate of 220! David Miller too contributed 54 runs.
Awards
He has also won a couple of awards thanks to his contribution to Indian cricket. They are Emerging Player Award (IPL 2014) and BCCI Cricketer of the Year (2014) (Under-19 category).
He is still 27, and hence he is yet to play a lot of cricket in his career. It will be rather interesting to watch how things turn out.
