Where focus is hugely on mystery spin and stuff, Axar Patel has impressed with orthodox bowling, highlights R Ashwin

After Ravindra Jadeja's injury meant he was confirmed to miss the World T20, there were a lot of aspersions cast over India's team balance heading into the marquee event Down Under. However, Axar Patel has emerged as a reliable replacement for the spinner all-rounder slot, proving his worth in the recently concluded T20I series against Australia.

The 28-year-old recorded two three-wicket hauls and tallied eight scalps in total, winning the player of the series award for his efforts. His economy of 6.30 was commendable too, especially considering the high-scoring nature of the second match after being curtailed to eight overs a side. The striking part about Axar's bowling is his ability to produce results despite not being a big spinner of the ball or having too many variations to boast off like a certain Ravichandran Ashwin.

“In a high-scoring series, he was at his economical best. In a world where the focus is hugely on mystery spin, googly, wrist spin, and other stuff, he has impressed with his orthodox left-arm spin bowling," the veteran off-spinner was quoted saying on his YouTube channel by NDTV.

“Pure value for putting the ball where he wants to and varying his pace, line, and length. That is a welcome sign if you ask me when it comes to spin bowling," Ashwin added.

Over the years, spinners like Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy have been hailed as useful T20 weapons owing to their unusual bowling styles and the batsmen's difficulty in decoding their variations. However, Ashwin feels all trends have a specific lifetime and sooner or later come to an end.   

“When it comes to spin bowling in T20 cricket, there have been trends. Mystery spin, wrist spin, and finger spin trends have gone back and forth for a while now. But it has always remained a circle. These trends will keep changing mostly because we live our entire lives in perception when it comes to cricket since we don’t understand the ebbs and flows of the game," Ashwin concluded.