The Indian left-arm spinner, Axar Patel on Wednesday said his plan to bowl wicket-to-wicket on a “skidding” Motera surface was turned out to be a good call on Day 1 of the day-night third Test against England in Ahmedabad. Patel and senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin made the most of the turning Motera pitch at the newly-inaugurated Narendra Modi Stadium as the hosts bundled out the England team for 112 in their first innings in just 48.4 overs after the visitors opted to bat. 

Talking about the same after the end of day’s play, Axar Patel said, “When things are going for you, you need to capitalise. My aim was to bowl wicket to wicket and use the help on offer. In Chennai, the ball wasn’t skidding. But here it was skidding which resulted in more LBW decisions. The pink ball had more glare, so it was skidding more after pitching. I got more skid on this wicket than Chennai.”

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Axar said he was confident of doing well in Ahmedabad after his performance in the second Test in Chennai, where he picked up a 5-fer in his debut.

Describing the same, Axar Patel said, “I didn’t expect to pick six wickets on an opening day but obviously, I was confident after picking up five wickets in Chennai. The Chennai performance gave me confidence that I can do well with pink ball and if the wickets support, I can put the batsmen under difficulty.”

The southpaw spinner also revealed that contrary to expectations, the ball wasn’t square and that’s the reason he and Ashwin decided to bowl at the stumps. Axar said as the ball was skidding more, he focussed on under-cutting his deliveries.

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Explaining the same, Axar said, “The wicket was skidding so I was focussing more on under-cutting the ball. I tried to bowl a lot faster so that I can take more advantage with the new ball.”