India are firing on all cylinders in the nets ahead of the match against South Africa
Axar’s carefree and funny on-screen demeanor, which often ends up as memes, is gaining more attention on social media. He likes to keep everything around him as uncomplicated as possible. This means that despite all the wealth he has earned from cricket, he prefers to build a new elegant house in his hometown in Nadiad, which is about 60 km from Ahmedabad. When he is not with the Indian team, he rushes to his comfortable place in Nadiad. The process he follows to stay at the top as an international cricketer is as rigorous and detailed as any. All extensive training sessions are scheduled at the GS Patel Stadium in Kheda district. It’s just that he has created a secure and strong core team outside of Indian cricket. This team is headed by his wife Meha, who charts his diet. “Meha is a qualified dietician. Even when he travels with the Indian team, he gets every meal from Meha,” Axar’s childhood friend and confidant Keval Patel of Nadiad told TOI. “Maybe a couple of times a year he takes a long break from the Indian team. He loves to eat cheese vada paav and laze around with us when he comes here. Meha doesn’t stop him from eating, but he adjusts a few other meals accordingly,” mentioned Keval. Much of Axar’s development as a cricketer and especially as a batsman took place at the GS Patel Stadium. Axar undertook the renovation of a gym with very basic equipment and turned it into a top fitness center for young people in the region. “He usually follows the routine given to him by the support staff at BCCI. But he realized that the local kids also needed better facilities. Five years ago he said he would fund the renovation of the gymnasium. In the gymnasium, there are pictures of all the best Indian cricketers on the wall,” said Keval. Soon Keval was talking about Axar’s meticulous cricket training. Before joining the Indian team for this T20 World Cup, he had a session with the Delhi Capitals team in Delhi where he practiced batting for the 15th over of the innings. The team management probably hinted to him that he would be required to bat lower in the order unlike in previous assignments. “He plans his training according to different batting situations. For the last five to six years, he has been batting four to five hours a day. On certain days he will practice against a new ball. On other days he will bat on the center square, where he will only practice power shots,” revealed Keval. In a chat with TOI, Axar said that he regained confidence in his batting after MS Dhoni asked him to think like a normal batsman around 2018 and could work on that with Ricky Ponting’s support at Capitals from 2019 onwards. And what exercises does he do for his bowling? “He’s just doing point bowling. His only focus is to bowl properly. He’ll hit the same spot for a long time, with different pace and angles,” said Keval. Axar’s utility batting has eclipsed that of the left-hander Axar, who has made more headlines in the last year. But it’s hard to discount his consistent contributions with the ball after enduring a barrage of barbs from pundits for the first half of his international career. In 2021, he told TOI that he had come to believe that he had to be a special bowler to make it this far without being a conventional left-arm spinner. “I spoke to R Ashwin but he is really thinking deeply. I can’t do that,” joked Axar. It has been a long journey for one of the most underrated cricketers of the last five years. He could develop into the poster child of Indian cricket in the next two-and-a-half weeks.