Sachin Tendulkar, former Indian cricketer explained the reason behind spinner Axar Patel’s success, saying that contrary to the general consensus of pitching the ball up and giving it air, the left-arm spinner did something different given the nature of the pitch, which worked brilliantly for him.
The Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar combined to pick 19 England wickets in the 3rd Test at Ahmedabad, while the only wicket that fell to pace belonged to Ishant Sharma.
Sachin Tendulkar: Batsmen Who Tried To Cover The Spin Were Dismissed LBW Or Were Bowled
India smartly included three spinners in starting XI, while England banked on one front-line spinner in Jack Leach, which, in hindsight, did not work in the best of interests for Joe Root’s team. While Ravichandran Ashwin continued his brilliant form from the second Test in Chennai, picking up seven wickets in the match, it was Axar Patel’s performance that was doing the rounds.
“When a left-arm spinner is bowling to a right-hander, then he cannot bowl outside off stump. The length is important but the line becomes even more important. So the line of a left-arm spinner against a right-handed batsman has to be on-off and middle so you cannot leave the ball,” Sachin Tendulkar said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
“Even if the ball is turning, you have to play because the odd one will go through and that is what happened. There were batters who were looking to play marginally behind the line and there were those who were trying to cover the spin. The ones who tried to cover were either bowled or out LBW.”
After bagging a maiden five-wicket-haul on his Test debut at Chennai, Axar Patel was unplayable and finished with 11 wickets in the match – 6/38 in the first innings and 5/32 in the second – as India bundled out England for 112 and 81 in the two innings.
Axar Patel is on a dream run taking 18 wickets in his first two Tests averaging a meagre 9.44. Ravichandran Ashwin is the leading wicket-taker with 24 wickets in 3 Tests while Jack Leach is 3rd on the list with 16 scalps.
Sachin Tendulkar: Left Arm Spinner’s Speed, Trajectory, And Angle Becomes Important As Jack Leach Was Trying In Vain To Toss Up The Ball
England found a surprise bowler in Joe Root, who with his off-spin dismantled India’s first innings, picking up his maiden First-Class five-wicket haul. Joe Root finished with career-best 5/8 as India lost five wickets for 11 runs to be skittled for 145. Sachin Tendulkar found Joe Root putting the same kind of effort as Axar Patel, but failed to spot it in Jack Leach.
“The left-arm spinner’s speed, the trajectory, the angle becomes important. It’s not one of those surfaces where you’ll toss the ball up and then as we say buy a wicket. If the wicket is offering assistance, what you need to do is not give batsmen enough time to adjust,” Sachin Tendulkar added.
“And Axar was brilliant at that. Since we’re talking of left-arm spinners, I did not find Leach doing that consistently. He was still trying to toss up the ball, but on this surface, you need to push the ball through a bit,” Sachin Tendulkar further said.
Indian spinners combined to pick up 19 wickets against England in the third Test in Ahmedabad. India spinners had a field day in the third Test against England in Ahmedabad, which finished in less than two days.
In the 3rd Test and Axar Patel’s 2nd one, he started to bowl as early as the 7th over in the 1st innings and struck on his very first delivery. Jonny Bairstow went to play for the turn but the ball went straight to hit his pad.
The 27-year-old spinner executed his arm balls to perfection to trap two more English batsmen namely Ben Stokes and Zak Crawley in front of the stumps before hitting out the stumps of Ben Foakes and Jofra Archer while Stuart Broad was caught. In the 2nd innings, he picked Zak Crawley, Dom Sibley, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, and Ben Foakes.