IND vs ENG: Heaps Of Praises For Axar Patel As He Bags His First 10 Wicket Haul

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel's dismissals of Jonny Bairstow in both innings was very Ravindra Jadeja-like. Playing just his second Test, Patel beat Bairstow on the inside edge for a leg-before deci

Patel stuck to an accurate line in both the innings across the two Tests and allowed the pitch and batsmen's nerve to do things.

"Axar is good at getting one to skid on and one to turn," said England opener Zak Crawley, who himself fell to Patel as England's fourth wicket after a half-century.

That created confusion, to which England batsmen succumbed. Not just confused by which ball to play and which to ignore, but where to play, on front foot or back foot.

Former India left-arm spinner Maninder Singh feels both Axar and Jadeja know their limitations and that serves them well.

"The similarity between Jadeja and Axar Patel is that they know their strengths. They don't go out of the way to do things they don't know. They know what their capabilities and limitations are. They both know that they can't bowl classical spin of using flight etc. That (knowing their limitations) is their biggest strength and is the most important thing," Maninder told.

"They know what they can do and they stick to that."

The 55-year-old former spin bowler says that having a coach like Ravi Shastri who, too, played within his limitations, has helped.

"If you see Shastri's batting, he would score off the hips, with flicks but would avoid cover-drive. Only after reaching a century, he would try that. Otherwise he would stay away from it. Ravi knew his strengths and knew the cover drive wasn't his strength. Similarly, these two boys (Jadeja and Patel) know their strengths."

On Wednesday, Axar said that he stuck to wicket-to-wicket line as there was nothing else to do.