From Kheda, Axar Patel on the fast lane to success

Life has been on the fast lane for Axar over the last 12 months. Not just his stature as a cricketer but, thanks to a much-neglected school leaving certificate, the spelling of his name too had changed. Akshar was now Axar. “My principal had mispelt my name as ‘Axar’ in the school leaving certificate. And when I was picked to tour Bangladesh, I got my passport and they went by the official name in school records. We hadn’t bothered about the name too much since I never imagined that I will come this far. So when I represented India for the first time, my jersey said Axar, and so it has remained,” says Patel.

Axar’s meteoric rise had started with him winning the U-19 cricketer of the year award at the start of this year. Then came IPL7, where he starred with the ball for Kings XI Punjab, snaring 16 wickets at a staggering-by T20 proportions-economy rate of 6.22. Before long, Akshar the shy and gaunt cricket-nut from a tiny village in Gujarat had become Axar the India player taking his first strides on the big stage.

While his initial outings in international cricket weren’t too noteworthy, he will now get a chance to redeem himself as he joins the rest of the Indian team in Delhi before boarding the flight to Dharamsala for the fourth ODI of the series. Fame and money have followed suit, and life is a lot different for Axar and his family these days. Along the way, he’s put not just Nadiad but the entire Kheda district on the cricketing map. The left-armer though has kept his feet tightly grounded.

Feel-good factor 

“Now there is sudden limelight, which I have been enjoying. Paisa toh aaya he, naam bhi aaya. It feels good but I don’t want to stop here. It’s a long journey ahead,” he says.

By the end of IPL7, Axar was Kings XI’s premier spinner. And he proved that that performance was no fluke by playing an integral role again in Punjab’s run to the semifinal of the Champions League T20, where he managed an even better economy rate of 6.15 despite having to bowl to some of the most destructive T20 hitters in the game. In both tournaments, Axar also proved his handiness with the bat, playing match-winning knocks at crucial times.

He often gets compared with Ravindra Jadeja, the more famous left-arm spinner all-rounder but Axar doesn’t agree. “His action is side-arm while I have a high-arm action. Batsmen find it tough to play the bounce that I can generate off the pitch because of my high-arm action. It’s an important weapon. At the same time, I don’t want to carry this short-format specialist tag. I know I can do well in the longer format too. As I play more, I will get more experience. Playing IPL and CLT20 has come as a massive help because you bowl to well-known and established players,” he adds

The 2015 World Cup is just months away and the pitches in Australia will play to Axar’s advantage where his disconcerting bounce will get pronounced. And a number of experts already feel that he possesses the X-factor, and not just in his name, to help India in their title defense Down Under.