India’s allrounder Axar Patel said that he had learnt from his past mistake of letting the size of the boundary interfere with his shot selection process, something that showed in the 4th T20I between the two sides when he went for the distant boundaries and scored a crucial 11-ball 21. The player also snapped up 2 wickets in the match as well.
“Obviously I knew it was tough because wickets were falling back to back. The message that I got from the dressing room was to take it to the last over because there weren’t any batsmen after me. So I thought I would take a chance in the last over. The side boundaries were big but I thought if I could hold my shape and watch the ball, I could clear them,” Axar said in video on BCCI.tv.
“I have felt in the past that if I think about the size of the boundary and don’t hit towards those sides, they become predetermined shots and because of that we make mistakes. I learnt from past mistakes and played my shots here,” he added.
Axar’s contribution went a long way in helping India post 167 runs, a target which was too steep for Australia, leading to the hosts getting wrapped up for just 119 runs, giving India an unassailable 2-1 lead in the series.
Shivam Dube, who was also featured in the video, asked him about his wickets, especially the LBW dismissal of Matthew Short, which was the result of an accurate review taken by Axar in consultation with Jitesh Sharma. Axar said he is not particularly a fan of reviews but took his chance this time.
“I’m never ready to take a review. But when the ball hit (his pads) this time, I think it stayed low. And the kind of action that I have, I bowl a little wide off the crease. So I always feel that the ball will hit outside the wicket or go from an angle,” he explained.
“But in this I knew that the ball was hitting and (although) it could have been a little outside the off stump, we could take a chance on umpire’s call and when I spoke to Jitu, he said ‘Axar it’s inside, I mean in the middle. So I said ‘yes we can take a chance’,” he recollected.
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