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Axar Patel
Cricket 

Chant Axar, chant victory. India clean sweep T20 series

Team MVR

The T20 series against New Zealand is in the bag. The building up for the next T20 World Cup is on its way and the youngsters are making hay. That’s style for you and Team India is showing the right momentum for it. The intent is there too, what with skipper Sharma taking the lead in being courageous and electing to bat after winning the toss at Eden Gardens.

After a handsome 7-wicket victory in the preceding T20 at Ranchi, a massive 73-run win today shows the sure-footing of the men in blue as the Kiwis looked pale, unsorted and out of sync in dealing with a challenge that could have been much higher had Sharma not been flash-caught by Sodhi who took a blinder which just stuck in on its way to the boundary.

 

But the highlight of the show was not so much the Indian skipper’s third half century in the series but the delightful 3-wicket haul by the lean and lanky Axar Patel.

 

Now Patel was seething after he was dropped from the World Cup squad for UAE giving way to Shardul. This was his comeback from there and to wipe out the Kiwi challenge with perfect guile and tight bowling should garner all the applause it deserves.

It was the charge of the young ones as head coach Rahul Dravid watched on, patting the new fielding coach T Dilip as Ishaan brokes the stumps with a direct throw from the outfield is a stunning and wicket taking display of youthful agility.

Deepak Chahar, who dropped the fiery Martin Guptil at 16 in a caught and bowled attempt gone wrong otherwise put up a grounded bowling display. As did Venkatesh Prasad with his debut wicket and Yuzvendra Chahal who was rapped for many a run before he took the big one of Guptil to prove his return from a long stay away had not gone waste.

Overall, Rohit has a performing band and will be in good hands and minds of his support staff to make some kind of mark when the squad kisses the shores of Australia in September 2023 to make up for the forgettable show in UAE under the last-time leadership of Virat Kohli.

From here to then, it will be all about constructing a campaign to life the Cup in a format that is well-powered by IPL.