IND vs AUS: Axar Patel sacrifices personal glory for team cause… yet again

So far in his career, Axar Patel has one first-class hundred while turning up for Gujarat. Had he cared about personal milestones or the rub of the green had gone his way, the left-handed all-rounder could have had three Test hundreds in this series. After his 84 and 74 at Nagpur and Delhi – knocks that helped India win the two Tests – Axar came up with another gem of a half-century here. His 113-balls 79, which had four towering sixes, gave India the momentum to put pressure on the Australians. For one more time in the series, Axar played a knock that suited the team’s requirements at the cost of individual glory.
At the press conference after the day’s play, Axar was asked about the satisfaction of scoring three half-centuries and helping the team’s cause. As a rider, there was also interest in knowing about his feeling of missing out on a three-digit score. The local boy, with a perennial smile on the face, chuckled. “Yeh last mein namak laga diya (you rubbed salt with the last bid),” he said, before explaining. “The way I was batting… and I know the chances I have missed and am aware that they wouldn’t come often. The one positive out of this is I batted the way I wanted to and we had a good partnership when the team needed it.”
As an afterthought, he would add, “I am not thinking too much about it (the missed hundreds) right now. I will feel it more when I get back to the room.”

FIFTY!
A well made half-century @akshar2026 👏👏
His 4th in Test cricket.#INDvAUS #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/ba6mOnTTSl
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 12, 2023
Team player
When asked about the team’s game plan, Axar said, “When I was batting with Virat bhai, there wasn’t any specific message from the team. Virat told me to continue playing positively, like I do. Once we got set, the bowlers weren’t getting much assance off the pitch too. Once I got set, I was connecting deliveries which were in my radar. Virat bhai was also saying that since I had scored 50, I can think something big since 22 overs were left in the day’s play. There was no message around declaration or playing fast. The way the pitch was and he was batting on 150 and I was over 50, runs were coming in the flow,” he said.
With Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja doing most of the bowling and sharing the wickets, Axar’s bowling hasn’t been under scrutiny in the series. On the final day of the Test, on a virtually dead track, the left-arm spinner will have his task cut out.
From the look of things, it wouldn’t be easy. After stumps on Day 3, Nathan Lyon had said that the pitch had no footmarks and was solid, underlining its lack of spin. On Sunday, there was another spinner giving the same verdict about the track.
“Obviously, it will be the fifth day tomorrow. Bowling is being done for four days and there is a little bit of rough. The wicket is still hard and not enough is happening off it,” Axar said. “I feel it’s important to press hard for the wickets when a new batsmen walks in or a new session starts. When a batsman gets set, there is not enough purchase for the bowler. Tomorrow we will try to not let them get set.”