Veteran India spinner Axar Patel revealed his mindset during the knockout stage of a marquee event. The Indian spinner shared that he bowled with the idea of starting and finishing the first and last over well. However, Axar was picked up the wicket of Jonny Bairstow on the very first ball of his over and then picked 3 wickets and was awarded as the Player of the Match for his all-round effort as well.

“I think I didn’t plan to hit wickets on first ball. I had a mindset that I have to put it in a good place. Obviously, when you play knockouts, your mindset is that you should start and finish the first and last ball well. That was in my mind. Obviously, every time I did well with the wicket, that was a plus point. I think it was difficult to hit big shots, and it was difficult to hit sweep and reverse sweep because if the ball was down on this wicket, you can’t connect it so easily,” Axar Patel said in the post-match press-conference.

Axar Patel also opened up about the all-important wicket of Jos Buttler, who fell against him while playing a reverse sweep as well.

“Because batsmen have a doubt that if I go to sweep, if the ball is down, I can hit it on the pad. It depends on what line length you put. Mostly our spinners kept it stump to stump. So, it was very difficult to hit sweep rewards on this wicket. And to hit the front, you have to hit the front as much as possible, but as we saw in the videos, his batsmen are a bit on the backfoot, so he didn’t get it so easily. He has to take out his leg and you have to take a step forward and play on this wicket, whatever type of wicket,” Axar Patel concluded.

India will take on South Africa in the final of the T20 World Cup 2024 on June 29, Sunday as well.