On a scorching Friday afternoon in New Delhi, Axar Patel, the all-rounder of Delhi Capitals, made a visit to the SG store located on MG Road near Gurugram. Sporting a casual-fitted T-shirt, training pants, and slippers, the 29-year-old spent considerable time exploring the store’s collection and testing out a few bats. Delhi Capitals are already out of the Playoffs race and their last fixture is scheduled against the Chennai Super Kings on Saturday.
Similar to his fellow Indian cricketers selected for the World Test Championship Final squad, Axar Patel is faced with limited preparation time ahead of the title clash against Australia at The Oval. However, the skilled all-rounder remains determined not to succumb to any “unnecessary pressure” for the crucial match. Recognizing the English conditions, Axar plans to make adjustments to the weight of his bat, believing that there is ample time to transition from the white ball to the red ball. In an exclusive interview with News18 CricketNext, Axar delves into his thoughts on the WTC final, the Impact Player rule, and Virat Kohli’s remarkable century against SRH in the recent match.
Excerpts:
You will be travelling to UK after the Indian Premier League. As a player, what kind of changes do you make to your bat for overseas tours. Any specific changes in the weight?
We do alter the weight of the bat when we travel overseas keeping the balance in mind. When we play in India, the bounce here is so low so I keep the weight in the bottom part. That’s how I maintain the shape of the bat. Talking about overseas conditions, the pitches there have bounce on offer so I keep the weight a bit light and also keep the balance in the middle.
After two months in the IPL, how easy or difficult it is to make the shift from white ball to red ball?
I guess, cricket as a sport is not easy (laughs). If you stress on this shift (from white ball to red), it gives you unnecessary pressure. The focus should be on the game and backing your strengths. The only difference is that you can’t really go after every delivery. You need to make small adjustments in your technique like having an idea of the off stump which can of course take a couple of days or so. But overall we will get enough time to make the shift. Rest the preparations are going good. Rahul (Dravid) bhai is coordinating, and BCCI is also coordinating about how to take things forward.
This year, the Impact Player rule has been introduced in the IPL. Does it ease the pressure from the all-rounders?
It depends upon the team combination. There are some teams where the onus is on the all-rounders while there are some other units where the all-rounders work has reduced as they are more likely to go in with a pure batter or bowler. If a team goes in with an extra batter, then they don’t really give much of a chance to bowlers to settle in.
In that last game against Punjab Kings, there was very little assistance for the bowlers. You, however, were very economical and accurate in that high-scoring fixture. What were your plans like in that fixture?
We had a discussion in the team meeting that it’s a paata wicket and we can bowl with a defensive mindset. But I personally was of the opinion that the kind of track this is, runs will come. So, my simple idea was to execute my plans. If I would have given away runs despite executing my plans, then it was a different case altogether as you can’t really do much about that.
Moreover, I was of the opinion that if I go in with a defensive mindset, I have somehow already surrendered. That’s why I kept attacking. That can obviously work on some occasions and might not on others but the day it works for you, you should make the most of it, that’s my idea.
Last night, Virat Kohli scored his sixth IPL hundred in RCB’s must-win match vs SRH. What did you make of that knock?
What makes Virat Kohli different from others is that he is a player on big occasions. He has shown over the years what he can do in crunch situations for his team. Everyone knows how big a player he is. He is a legend and he showed that once again against SRH. The way he is playing in this IPL is pretty good. He is scoring runs consistently and it’s inspiring for the youngsters as well.
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