In all the noise about India’s most crushing defeat of England on home soil, of Ravichandran Ashwin’s miracles with bat and ball, of England’s rotation policy, of Moeen Ali, of the state of the wicket, of Virat Kohli’s on-field expressiveness, of Rishabh Pant and Ben Foakes, one man’s debut rather slipped under the carpet. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel, lean and lanky, with an air of Ravi Shastri about the moustache, marked his Test debut with five wickets in the second innings and the prize of dismissing Joe Root twice.
Patel was drafted into the squad for the first Test as a replacement for Ravindra Jadeja, who will miss the entire series against England after dislocating his left thumb in the third Test against Australia. Patel then missed the first Test because of a knee injury but used his time on the sidelines to do his homework. “I noticed Joe Root plays a lot of sweep and reverse sweep shots,” he said, “and I thought with the speed that I bowl at, I had the opportunity to get him out, and I wanted my first wicket to be his dismissal.”
And so in the second Test it came to pass, with Kohli turning to Patel with England wobbling at 19 for two in the first innings. In his second over he spun one that dug into the pitch, slowed, and turned out of the dust. Root swept and top-edged to Ashwin at short fine-leg. Patel completed his Root double almost immediately after lunch on the final day when he persuaded the ball to perform a double-axel, rear off the pitch and catch Root’s glove before travelling to slip. As close to unplayable as unplayable comes.
Patel was only 19 when he was picked by Mumbai Indians for the 2013 IPL, although he spent the season on the bench. He moved to Kings XI Punjab before joining Delhi Capitals as their second most expensive player before the 2019 season. He also plays first-class cricket for Gujarat where he won the Ranji Trophy, India’s domestic first-class competition, in 2017 under the leadership of Parthiv Patel. He has praised RP Singh, India’s now retired left-arm quick bowler, who played for Gujarat in that Ranji Trophy-winning team, for helping him understand the mentality of batsmen. He has also played lots of white-ball cricket for India, with useful late-order runs to add to his left-arm spin.
The next Test, which starts on 24 Feburary, is at Ahmedabad – the largest city in Gujarat – and Patel’s home ground. The huge new stadium, which seats 110,000 fans in a non-Covid year, has state of the art drainage to soak up any damp in record time – music to Patel’s ears, if not Joe Root’s.
Patel has also spent time in England. He played four first-class games for Durham in 2018, to bolster a squad that had lost half their players after being relegated. He made his debut at a damp Cardiff in August and smashed 95 off 99 balls in a low-scoring game, before making the mistake of allowing Durham No 11 Chris Rushworth on strike, who was promptly bowled. Martin Emmerson, the BBC local radio reporter, remembers asking Patel why he hadn’t tried to hog the strike. “The gentleman at the other end told me he could bat,” he replied, with extreme politeness.
Emmerson remembers a young man who came “as a spin bowler who could bat a bit but looked a class apart batting.” Patel also took what remains his best first-class figures, of seven for 54, against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.
The one mystery surrounds the name in the scorebook: Axar. His real name is Akshar – meaning letter. When he was in India’s Under-19 team he had to get a passport before the World Cup. His father went on an errand to his school to collect proof of his name but the principal spelt his name wrong on the certificate. So his passport, and then his driving licence have the wrong spelling. The man himself is relaxed about it, just licking his lips for another chance against England, this time at his home ground.
