“There Is Spin But…”: Axar Patel’s Honest Verdict On Pitch During First Test Against England | Cricket News

Hyderabad:

The greatest a part of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s entertaining unbeaten 76 was the style wherein he utterly unsettled England’s troika of spinners, India’s left-arm sluggish bowler Axar Patel reckoned after opening day’s play within the first Test. Riding on Jaiswal’s 70-ball blitz, India closed the opening day at 119 for 1 whereas replying to England’s first innings whole of 246 all out. “We enjoyed the way Yashasvi was batting and he took on the spinners from the very first over. It was very good to unsettle them early,” stated Axar within the post-day press convention. Jaiswal hammered debutant England left-arm spinner Tom Hartley for 2 sixes within the second over of India’s first innings to impose himself on the match.

However, Axar himself performed a not insignificant position in India’s cost on the day, plucking the wickets of Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes.

The 30-year-old stated he was simply attempting to enhance senior companions Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

“I have learned a lot from seniors Ash and Jaddu bhai. I was trying to control the game from my end as they were bowling in partnership. They were taking wickets, so, I was not thinking about taking wickets,” he stated.

“I know that if you are playing three spinners then one of them will get a lesser number of overs. They were also telling me what was happening on the wicket and what I should do. It is a privilege to bowl with them,” stated Axar.

The Gujarat bowler was significantly happy in regards to the dismissal of Bairstow after castling him with a gem of a supply that was bowled from huge of the crease, hitting the stumps with the angle.

“That delivery really came off well. We were talking if it turns from there then it would be great because the odd ball was turning. Bairstow took stance on the fourth wicket to avoid the lbw.” “So, I thought of bowling at the stumps because he did cut a few shots close to the stumps. That was the plan and the one that turned from there was good and you would have seen my celebration,” he added.

In their try to negate Indian spinners, the England batters employed reverse sweeps one too many occasions and Axar stated the attacking mindset of rivals exponentiated his probabilities to take wickets.

“I was talking with the captain that they were playing sweeps and reverse sweeps and we were looking where the reverse sweeps were going. So, we placed the point (fielder) a bit behind.

“We had talked about this within the crew assembly and we had a plan for this. It’s good that they needed to assault and it had an opportunity of getting them out,” he noted.

Axar said the RGI Stadium pitch did not have any alarming turn and it was a good effort from the Indian bowler’s part to bowl out England for 246.

He hoped that the batters would play longer on the second day and further cement the team’s advantage.

“There is spin however the wicket is sluggish and we all know that we did nicely to limit them to 246. We can alter to it because the ball is getting sluggish after pitching. Yeah, it’s a bit difficult as nicely for the batters however when you bat nicely then you can also make runs right here,” he concluded.