How ex-Mumbai Ranji player Mandale’s pep talk boosted Axar

Axar Patel celebrates a wicket on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

A former Mumbai Ranji player probably played a small role in putting Axar Patel's career graph on the right path with some simple advice during his U-16 days. An incident during his age group cricket turned Axar Patel from a frisky cricketer to a key member of India's T20 World Cup triumph on Saturday at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

The left-handed all-rounder from Nadiad rebuilt the India innings with Virat Kohli after India lost skipper Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant within the space of two balls in the second over of the ICC T20 World Cup final against the Proteas. Axar, nicknamed Bapu by his India teammates, was one of the shining stars of India's unbeaten run in the World Cup held in the USA and the Caribbean. His 47 (1x4, 4x6) with a strike-rate of 151.61 came in at No. 5. Overall, he scored 92 runs from five innings with a strike-rate of 139 while batting as a floater in the middle-order. Axar also took nine wickets in eight innings with his left-arm spin.

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Shridhar Mandale and Bharat Mistry

He enjoyed playing lofted shots right from his U-14 and U-16 days, and during a Vijay Merchant (U-16) West Zone tournament, he got out to such lofty shots in two successive matches after a good start about 15 years ago. Some of the Gujarat selectors wanted to drop him from the XI for playing reckless shots, but he had the strong backing of the other selectors. "I had seen his potential and knew that he had to be told to be more serious and thoughtful about his shot selection," a former Gujarat left-arm spinner and then senior selector for the Gujarat junior team, told mid-day.

Gujarat's match was against Mumbai in Nadiad, and former Mumbai Ranji player Shridhar Mandale was in Nadiad with the Mumbai team as a mentor. "I asked Mandale to speak to Axar," the former Gujarat Ranji star and Mandale's West Zone U-22 teammate, said. He added that after Mandale spoke to the southpaw, Axar cried. "I told Axar that your tears show that you have realised your mistakes," the senior selector added.

Another Nadiadi (Nadiad resident) left-arm all-rounder was also a selector and backed Axar. "I saw myself in Axar as he bowled left-arm spin like me and batted aggressively like I used to bat in my younger days," said Bharat Mistry, who turned up for Gujarat 52 times in the Ranji Trophy.

With the backing of these two selectors, Axar was retained, and in the third match at Rajkot, after Mandale's words of wisdom, he scored a hundred. "We backed him and he justified our decision," Mistry told mid-day. He added that after that century in Rajkot against Saurashtra, Axar never looked back and kept progressing to a higher level. On Saturday, he scaled one more peak as more such peaks await the 30-year-old Bapu.