Statement of Axar Patel After His 3-Wicket Haul vs Australia
Spinner Axar Paul said that it required a lot of mental fortitude to come back with an attacking mindset less than 72 hours after being defeated. He set up India's series win against Australia with superb figures of 3/16 in the fourth T20I in Raipur on Friday. India has now taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. Axar, who was hit for 22 runs in the penultimate over of the third T20I in Guwahati, where India had failed to defend 222, was the chief architect in defence of a much lesser 174 for 9 in the fourth game.
At the post-match ceremony, Axar said, "To stay attacking and be mentally strong is important, as there is every chance to get hit in this format. When you go with an attitude to pick wickets, you will feel much better.”
While there wasn't as much dew as it was at Barsapara the other night, Axar used his tried-and-tested formula of pitching it on the three sticks.
He further said, "I tried to stick to my strengths and wasn't really bothered even though I had gotten hit, and bowling stump-to-stump was the key to negating the dew factor." Axar missed out on the World Cup after sustaining a hamstring injury during the Asia Cup and made a comeback for this series after extensive rehabilitation.
While concluding his statement, he said, "I was trying a lot of things when I was at home, and it came out well today. During the injury break, I focused on improving myself and adding new variations to my bowling to remain successful at the highest level."