Axar: ‘I don’t play for my place in the Indian team’

“I don’t think of whether I have established permanency in the team or not. I only think of performing well in a match that I get to play. I have a place now in the Indian team and my aim is do well,” Axar Patel said.

The 23-year-old Axar Patel has played 38 ODIs and nine T20Is for India so far.

The Indian team took a complete break from all physical cricket activity before the second Twenty20 international against New Zealand at the SCA stadium at Khanderi Village.

The team arrived here on Thursday evening, but preferred to have an extended rest after it won the first Twenty20 against New Zealand at the Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi by 53 runs. While leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal accounted for Martin Guptill and Tom Latham, left arm spinner, Axar Patel also took two key wickets.

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The Gujarat all-rounder is also in the reckoning in the ODI side in the last 12 months. Patel has also proved his adequacy in the nine Twenty20 internationals he has played so far. He dismissed Tom Bruce and Colin de Grandhomme in the first match.

The 23-year-old doesn’t think he plays to cement his place in the team. “I don’t think of whether I have established permanency in the team or not. I only think of performing well in a match that I get to play. I have a place now in the Indian team and my aim is do well,” he said.

Patel said he has a fair idea of the wicket here at the SCA. “I bowl according to the behaviour of the pitch. The ball doesn’t turn much here; it tends to go straight. So I know how to bowl on this pitch here. The wrist spinners get some turn on any pitch. The role of the finger spinner is to keep the run rate in check.”