Axar Patel, the left arm bowler and left-hand batsman for Kings XI Punjab, has come out and expressed how one of India's greatest limited overs match winner Yuvraj Singh's presence in the team is helping him immensely. 

Yuvraj Singh may not be featuring regularly for India and is likely in the twilight of his illustrious career but the amount of experience he brings with him has really helped Axar and others in the camp. Axar was quoted saying about Yuvraj recently that, ”Yuvraj is one of the legends of the game. We keep talking to each other whenever we can. His main point is that each player has his own mindset and technique. Follow your strengths is his mantra.”

He further added, “His knowledge of the game is immense and he shares it with me often. In the net sessions, he tells me that if the ball is in your area then you should go for it and if it’s not in your zone then you should know how to manoeuvre it. He keeps insisting that I focus on my strength. So yeah, he does help me with my batting,” 

Axar was the only player Kings XI Punjab retained from their last season as the 24-year-old scored 227 runs and picked up 15 wickets. Talking about whether it brings any pressure with it from the team to do better, He said “To be honest there is no pressure and neither has the team management given any additional responsibility. So I haven’t felt anything like that,” 

He also said that he wants to stick to his strength despite what is said about him. The need to bowl slower in order to spin the ball. To this Axar said, ”Playing on such a big platform, you know your strengths and weakness and with each passing season you do need to bring in a few changes. As far as bowling is concerned, I stick to my plan. A lot of people have told me that I bowl fast and should reduce my pace but I have my own gameplan and I stick to what I have been doing best.”

(Inputs from Indian Express)