Akshar Patel has been one of the best finds for Indian cricket in last 2 years or so. A good left arm spinner and an attacking lower order batsman, Akshar has become a much needed alternative for Ravindra Jadeja, as Jadeja is constantly bowling overs after overs in Test cricket and Akshar can give him some break and hold his own in international cricket. This IPL 10 might bring Akshar back in national reckoning, as he is making a comeback after injuring himself.
IPL Hat-trick
Akshar Patel lit up the IPL in 2016 with a brilliant hat-trick against Gujarat Lions. Kings batted first and scored a decent 154 runs with captain M Vijay scoring 55 and Wriddhiman Saha and David Miller making couple of 30s. The pitch was a typical Rajkot pitch and Akshar Patel read it to perfection. Mohit Sharma destroyed the top order of Gujarat and Akshar took care of Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja to pick up his first hat-trick in IPL.
Batting Heroics
Akshar has been often
touted as a perfect all-rounder and has made some valuable contribution with
bat in both domestic and IPL cricket. In a crucial match against Rajasthan
Royals in IPL 2015, Kings were chasing a tough target of 191. Shaun Marsh took
them close to the total and Kings needed 40 runs in 3 overs to close the match.
David Miller played a brilliant innings of 54 runs off 30 balls and Kings
needed 19 runs in the last over. Mitchell Johnson and Akshar Patel scored the
required runs, with Akshar hitting a boundary off the last ball of the 20th
over to tie the match.
Kings XI won the one over super over and took two points.
Wanted to be a
mechanical engineer
Akshar Patel was a very bright student. He scored very good marks in his X and XII and wanted to become a mechanical engineer. However, he played good cricket and when his father came to know about it, he urged him to take up proper cricket coaching and encouraged him and kept his focus on cricket, as Akshar didn't enjoy the rigors of cricket.
4 wickets and no runs
In a first class match against South Africa A in Wayanad, Akshar Patel bowled six overs to pick up four wickets. The interesting thing is that he didn't concede any runs in those 6 overs and South Africa A was routed for 76 runs. His figured of 6-6-0-4 are one of his better accomplishments in cricket.
India debut
Akshar made his India debut against Bangladesh in 2014 and picked up 1 wicket. However, he had a better debut in T20Is against Zimbabwe in 2015, where he picked 3/17 to win the match for India by 54 runs. He was awarded the man of the match for his performance on debut.
