There's high confidence in what Axar does with the ball: Venkatapathy Raju

When Axar Patel made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in 2015, many were left wondering how his career path would turn out, considering Ravindra Jadeja had established himself in the national set-up across formats.

For the next couple of years, Axar was in and out of the India white-ball squads, as his presence was dependent on Jadeja’s availability. But in last few years, Axar has carved a strong presence for himself in India’s side in the shortest format, especially in the T20 World Cup triumph in June.

If it was his three-fer which gave India the early lead over upstaging England in the semi-finals, Axar stepped up with his batting prowess by making a vital 47 in the final against South Africa.

With Jadeja retiring from T20Is and rested from ODI series against Sri Lanka, it gives Axar an opportunity to become India’s lead spin-bowling all-rounder in white-ball scheme of things. Venkatapathy Raju, the former India left-arm spinner, dissects what makes Axar the bowler a force to reckon with in white-ball cricket.

"He's one of the bowlers who sticks to his strengths and doesn't try to experiment too much. He just reads the nature of the wicket, and according to that, he just keeps changing his pace. He doesn't change his variations, and has got a brilliant straight ball.

"When he bowls in a power-play, he just slides it through. When he comes back with the old ball, he just slows down the pace of the ball. So that's why he's been very successful in white-ball cricket.

"The best part is he uses his height and that angle what he creates and the pace. A very thinking bowler who doesn't try too many things. He just believes in whatever strength he's got in his bowling, and there is very, very high confidence in whatever he does with the ball,” says Raju in an exclusive conversation with IANS, facilitated by Sony Sports Network.

Raju, also a former national selector, firmly believes Axar possesses of all the ingredients to become the new lead spin all-rounder in Jadeja’s absence, especially in T20Is. “He’s not only handy with the ball, he's a brilliant fielder and handy with the bat also in white-ball cricket. He's been very handy in Indian conditions when it came to Test cricket.”

"He had to wait because Jadeja has been a match winner for us for many, many years. He was a brilliant fielder. So, the good thing about Axar is he's been part of the team for a long time, and not been out of it.

"He can be Jadeja’s replacement in T20Is, as he can be very handy with the bat, ball, and is a brilliant fielder. He'll be an all-round cricketer for all formats, not only 50 or 20-over cricket. He can be very handy when it comes to Test matches also. I think he'll be the spirit of this young T20 or white-ball Indian teams."

Apart from Axar, India have another spin-bowling all-rounder in Washington Sundar and Riyan Parag can chip in with some off-spin too. While Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube are all-rounders in T20Is, the latter is joined by Harshit Rana in ODIs.

The presence of many all-round options indicates India are following a template which new head coach Gautam Gambhir had used in his IPL mentorship roles: of regularly packing a side with dual-skill players.

"That's very important now, as if you see in 2007 when we were T20 World Cup Champions, if you go back to that particular team, we had a lot of all-rounders, right? So they can fill in the gap whenever, whenever a bowler has a bad day, you need somebody who can fill those couple of overs.

"In this Indian team, the players have been proving themselves and playing a good brand of cricket. We always need a good competition. The best part about Indian team is we've got so many replacement players. So that's why they can afford to give a break to players who have been playing regularly.”

"All these guys have been doing well. So probably if anybody is going out of the team, if not because of the performance, it's probably, it will be to give them a break, which is a nice headache for anyone," concluded Raju.

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