Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has showered praise on Axar Patel and believes the all-rounder often goes under the radar. Patel was dismissed for a golden duck however he returned with impressive figures of 2-20 in three overs he bowled against Namibia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Thursday.
The left-arm orthodox spinner accounted for Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus and Malan Kruger. Patel was hit for two sixes by Erasmus but Pathan said the spinner knows how to come back.
Irfan Pathan said on his YouTube Channel, “A major positive is Axar Patel. He is someone who goes under the radar when it comes to bowling. If we see this game, he had conceded 14 runs in the first over and went for two sixes. But Axar made a good comeback and took two wickets by the end of his spell. He bowls extremely well and knows how to come back. You want that mindset in a player along with skill level and Axar has that. I also expect him to do well with the bat and moving Axar to the top will be beneficial.”
On the other hand, Varun Chakravarthy returned with impressive figures of 3-7 in the two overs he bowled and Pathan said the mystery spinner played a key role in pushing Namibia back after a decent start.
“It was a solid win but there are positive and negative takeaways out of this game. Varun Chakaravarthy is arguably the biggest positive. He is their biggest perspective from the perspective of this World Cup. Namibia were chasing 210 and had made 57 runs in the powerplay. It was a decent start but things changed and had to. Chakaravarthy picked up a wicket off his first ball, he bowled only two overs and gave away hardly any runs but picked up three scalps.”
Pathan said the Namibian batters looked clueless against Varun Chakravarthy, who was too good for them.
“Reading his spin or solving this mystery is not the job of the associate nation. It was visible and Namibia didn’t have answers. It was fun to watch them in the powerplay but the turn from the wicket troubled them.”
India will next take on arch-rivals Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, on Sunday.
