Axar Patel Bowls Faster Than Jadeja: Virat Kohli

Handling the glossy new pink ball at the spin-friendly and dusty Motera pitch was akin to a spinner handling the new ball on a matting wicket, something that old Gujarat and Saurashtra spin bowlers ha

Patel, who was a fast bowler during his under-15 cricket days, bowls more like a pacer. He has the height that helps. He attributed his ability to bowl quick to his pace bowling during under-15 and under-14 cricket.

"When Jaddu [Jadeja] got injured, a lot of people might have been relieved, but this guy [Axar] comes in and bowls faster than Jadeja from that height," said skipper Virat Kohli after the match.

Patel's coach in Nadiad from younger days Sanjaybhai Patel says he is quite used to bowling this way and has a fair experience of bowling on matting surface. After Patel had returned from a National Cricket Academy camp when he was around 18 with an advisory to follow on how to give flight, it was on coach Patel's insistence that he was told to concentrate on bowling the way he was bowling -- quick, his natural style, and forget flight.

"We [at Kheda District Cricket Tournament] used to have a two-day tournament on a matting surface till about three years ago. Axar played quite a few times there," he says. "The new ball goes straight and often comes in fast on matting for a spinner."

The Gujarat-Saurashtra region has been known for producing spinners, especially left-arm spinners as India skipper Virat Kohli said on Thursday that everyone here attributes to pure coincidence.

Vinoo Mankad, Salim Durrani, Dilip Doshi and Dhiraj Parsana, who played just two Tests, were all left-arm spinners like Jadeja and Patel. There has also been off-spinner Jasu Patel.

"There could have been more. But there was massive competition for India places back then and we were also known as matting spinners, i.e. those who know how to bowl only on mat [on which the old ball turns prodigiously]," says Joshi.

But with pitches such as the one in Chennai and Motera, and more pink ball Tests expected to be played in future, more of such 'matting spinners' may be preferred.