Axar Patel Ricky ponting: Former Australian Captain Ricky Ponting talked about how he transformed Axar Patel’s batting with a few technique changes during his coaching days with Mumbai Indians and now with Delhi Capitals.
The Test series between India and Australia that recently ended highlighted challenging pitches for batters, with the exception of the final match which had a flat wicket. Throughout most of the series, spin bowling was dominant, resulting in difficulties for top-order batters. This posed a major challenge for India, but they found an ultimate hero in the series.
It is Axar Patel, who was picked in the recently scheduled Border Gavaskar Trophy as a spin bowler has completely diverted everyone’s view of seeing him just as a bowler. The left-handed batter shocked everyone with his batting performance as he was among the top-three run-getters.
Despite being known more for his bowling than his batting in Test cricket, Axar Patel became India’s top scorer for a certain period of the series and finished as the third-highest run-scorer overall. With a total of 264 runs from five innings, Axar recorded an impressive average of 88.00 and managed to score three half-centuries.
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Despite bowling only half as many overs as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel ended up being more impactful with the bat than with the ball in the series. Patel only took 3 wickets in the whole series as compared to Jadeja’s 22 wickets and Ashwin’s 25 wickets throughout the series.
Ricky Ponting’s little changes transformed Axar Patel
According to former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, he had already noticed Axar Patel’s batting abilities during the all-rounder’s earlier days. Ponting worked with Axar on two occasions – first in 2013 when Axar played for the Mumbai Indians, and now with Delhi Capitals.
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Speaking on the ICC Review, Ponting revealed that he was aware of Axar’s potential as a batsman. They made a few technical adjustments to help him improve his batting skills. “I’ve known Axar for a long time and he was only a young boy in the squad at Mumbai when I first went there,” Ponting said.
“I’ve known that there’s been a certain amount of batting skill there that really, apart from the last couple of years, he hadn’t really been showing at IPL level or even at international level.”
“There were a few little technique changes that we made with him. We just opened up his hips and his shoulders a little bit. So he was a bit more chest-on towards the right-arm fast bowlers,” said the former Australian Captain.
