Published 22:48 IST, March 2nd 2021
Zak Crawley lauds Axar Patel's bowling accuracy in ongoing Test series against England
England batsman Zak Crawley has lauded left-arm spinner Axar Patel for being 'extremely accurate' in the ongoing four-match Test series
England batsman Zak Crawley has said that Team India's frontline spinner Axar Patel is extremely accurate and does not allow batsmen to score runs. Axar had registered back-to-back five-wicket hauls in the third Test match at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad that was contested under lights.
In fact, he had accounted for Crawley in both innings as well. While the opening batsman managed to score a half-century in the first innings, he got out on the very first delivery in the second innings.
'He is extremely accurate'
"He (Axar) is a very good bowler, especially in these conditions. He is extremely accurate and does not give you much to score," Crawley said during a virtual press conference.
A hat-trick of fifers of Axar Patel
On a raging turner, Patel made the ball talk and also provided timely breakthroughs for India at regular intervals as the English batsmen failed to judge the spinner's line, length, as well as accuracy as they were left bamboozled. The frontline spinner ran through the visitors' top and middle-order to trigger a batting collapse in the second innings. He accounted for the likes of Zak Crawley, Dom Sibley, Jonny Bairstow, skipper Joe Root, and wicket-keeper batsman Ben Foakes to register yet another impressive five-wicket haul.
Thus, the southpaw ended up registering a second straight five-wicket haul in two days, and at the same time, he also registered a hat-trick of fifers in the ongoing Test series. Nonetheless, what really stands out here is that this is Patel's third consecutive fifer in his Test career and the most astonishing thing is that he has achieved this much on only his second Test appearance for India.
Axar Patel had made his red-ball debut for India during the second Test that was played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai a couple of weeks where he had registered a memorable fifer as India defeated England by a mammoth 317 runs to stage a remarkable comeback in the four-match series after having tasted a 227-run loss in the series opener.
(With ANI Inputs)
Updated 22:48 IST, March 2nd 2021