India’s Axar Patel has on more than one occasion rescued India with the bat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
In day four’s play at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Axar scored a brisk 79, including four sixes and five fours, to help India secure a 91-run lead and also helped the hosts’ reach 571 through a brilliant 162-run partnership with Virat Kohli, who top-scored with a magnificent 186.
India vs Australia, 4th Test Day 5: LIVE
After the end of the day’s play, while speaking to the broadcaster, Axar Patel was jokingly reprimanded by Sunil Gavaskar.
“Agli baar century miss mat karyega. Kyunki 100 kay itne mauke aate nahi jaldi, toh jab aata hain toh chodiye mat. (Next time don’t miss out on the century. There are very few times when you reach close to a ton and when you do grab the opportunity),” Gavaskar said.
Axar thanked the legendary Indian batter for his comments.
Axar is the third-highest run-getter in the ongoing series, scoring 266 runs at an average of 88.00. He had hit crucial fifties in India’s victories in Nagpur and New Delhi, and was the only batter to be unbeaten in both innings for the hosts’ in Indore.
Axar revealed that he is carrying forward his confidence from previous outings, which is helping him bat really well.
“The way I’m batting, I am happy to be contributing for the team. I am playing my game, backing my strengths. I am just carrying forward my confidence and batting really well,” he said to broadcasters at the end of day’s play.
Though Axar has picked only two wickets in the series, he has managed to be a handy contributor with the bat lower down the order. “The talk in the first Test was to carry forward the confidence.”
“The way I was helping the team win matches last year, that’s helping me and giving me more confidence. I am getting more information about my game, the strengths and weaknesses. I am punishing the bad balls and respecting the good deliveries,” he added.
Asked if he had a set role as an aggressor, he replied, “I had no set role as such. The idea was to play as long as possible. At first we were chasing their score. Once we went past, the talk was that if I get a bad ball, I would hit it as he (Virat) was tired and ball wasn’t doing much. I had it in my mind that the score has to be tall.”
(With inputs from Agencies)
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