Axar Patel hasn’t had much to do in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 so far. Indian captain Rohit Sharma showed faith in him and gave him a few overs to bowl in the game against Zimbabwe and get him into some rhythm ahead of the big clashes. However, things didn’t go as planned as he leaked runs at an economy rate of 12 in the 3.2 overs he bowled.
Axar was smashed for 5 fours and a six in his first three overs as he barely bowled any dot balls. The Zimbabwe bowlers smashed him all around the ground, playing some unorthodox shots and using the ground dimensions to great effect.
Though he picked up the last wicket to fall, but it was a disappointing performance from his end. As a result of his unimpressive performances, he has been receiving criticism from all corners, especially with Yuzvendra Chahal warming the bench. However, Indian captain Rohit Sharma has extended his support to him as he said that the team understands his quality and one bad tournament doesn’t make him out of form.
Ahead of India’s semi-final clash against England, speaking to reporters during the pre-match press conference, Rohit said: “To be honest, not really worried, as such, because he hardly got to bowl in this tournament. Except for that game against the Netherlands, he’s not bowled full overs of his quota, only because of the conditions that have been offered. We’ve got four seamers who have particularly bowled all of their quotas, which means the spinners will not bowl their overs.”
He added: “If you look at the conditions, except Sydney, all the grounds we’ve played had a lot to offer to the seamers, which means we never got an opportunity to bowl Axar in the powerplay, which is his specialty, and yeah, honestly have not looked too much into his bowling and gotten worried about his performance because we do understand his quality and the series that we played before coming here bowled exceptionally well.”
Further, Rohit referred to the series India played against Australia in September and recalled how Axar finished as the leading wicket-taker for India and also bagged the Player of the Series award for it. He said:
“Guys can have one bad tournament; it doesn’t mean that he’s out of form or not bowling well, or not been able to execute plans. I thought the kind of space he’s in for me is important, and when I talked to him, and heard his thoughts, I pretty much felt that he’s in a good space, and that is exactly what we want when you’re about to play a game like that,”
