Follow UsBack in 2015, Axar Patel made his T20I debut for India, but the all-rounder spent the best part of the first eight years of his career first in the shadow of Ravichandran Ashwin & Ravindra Jadeja, then Kuldeep Yadav & Yuzvendra Chahal.
However, with Axar’s batting skills skyrocketing, the last three years or so have seen the 31-year-old come into his own and turn into a vital cog for India in white-ball cricket, particularly in T20Is. Last year, India ended their ICC Trophy drought by lifting the T20 World Cup and integral to that was Axar, who produced crucial performances with both bat and ball.
Since then, Axar has only grown from strength to strength in white-ball cricket, and he also played a big role in the side’s win in the Champions Trophy earlier this year.
Today in Dubai against Pakistan, the all-rounder further added to his legacy by surpassing Ashwin in the all-time wicket takers list for India in the shortest format. Axar started the game level with Ashwin (72), but then went past the off-spinner with the big wicket of Fakhar Zaman, who miscued a big hit and got caught at long-on.
Axar then stretched the lead over Ashwin further by dismissing the opposition skipper Salman Ali Agha.
Most wickets in T20Is for India (among spinners)
96 - Yuzvendra Chahal
76 - Kuldeep Yadav
74 - Axar Patel
73 - Ravichandran Ashwin
The left-arm spinner was not further able to add to his tally after that, but he finished with superb figures of 2/18 off his 4. His spell played a big part in India choking Pakistan, as the Men in Green went from 42/2 in the powerplay to 72/6 in 14 when Axar completed his fourth and final over.