Axar Patel has had a great start to his Test career. He registered a five-wicket haul on debut in the second Test of the four-match series against England, in Chennai, which India won by a massive margin of 317 runs. Then he took his performance a notch higher as his 6/38 and 5/32 in the two innings in Ahmedabad bundled England up for paltry totals of 112 and 81 respectively. As a result, India won the match by 10 wickets and took a 2-1 lead in the series.
The hosts have been subjected to severe criticism for producing tracks which have assisted spinners right from Day 1 in the last two Test matches. While fans and pundits are still divided in their opinion about the pitch, Australia left-arm spinner Ashton Agar has admitted that he loves watching such tracks in the sub-continent, and he thoroughly enjoyed Axar’s performance as well.
“I love watching cricket in the sub-continent. That is the greatest cricket to watch in the sub-continent as a spinner. Loved watching Axar Patel bowl. He was able to just hit the shiny side of the ball and get a few to go off the wicket,” Agar told reporters on Monday.
“That’s the most lethal one because you are expecting them to turn so much. He would have got maybe 10 of his wickets in the last couple of Tests with the straighter ones. Pretty exciting stuff, hopefully, the pitches stay this way in the subcontinent. It makes for really exciting cricket,” Agar said.
Agar is yet to play a Test match in India and he will be eager to play now after watching the conditions on offer. He also explained the dynamics of spin bowling on such surfaces from a left-arm spinner’s point of view.
“The key to bowling in the sub-continent is accuracy and consistency, hitting the stumps every ball. One might turn and one might not. Sometimes, if you don’t know what the ball is going to do as a bowler. The batsman has absolutely no idea. However, Axar seemed to do it quite a lot of times,” Agar added.
“Maybe it’s something to work on. I am keen to play around with that after watching that. It’s a really good skill to have. Rangana Herath is a good example of that. I don’t know whether he meant to do it but he let the ball pitch in the same spot consistently.”
