'When we lost 3 wickets early, Rahul bhai told me...': Dravid's masterstroke that helped India beat SA in T20WC final

India's head coach Rahul Dravid waits at the presentation ceremony after defeating South Africa in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup final cricket match at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown

For the better part of his international career, Axar Patel has featured as a backup for Ravindra Jadeja, thus getting his chances only when the latter is absent or injured. However, with captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid having flexibility in the line-up across the two departments, India, for the first time, featured both Axar and Jadeja in the playing XI in all eight completed matches in the 2024 T20 World Cup.

What also changed for Axar, was that he managed to outperform Jadeja in all three key aspects of the game-batting, bowling, and fielding. While he has been consistently used in the powerplay and the middle overs, with batters struggling to get a boundary against him, Axar has often been used up the order in a bid to gain an advantage over match-ups.

The first instance of India utilising Axar's batting prowess happened in 2022, following a stellar IPL season in which he averaged 45.50 and registered a strike rate of 151.67. Despite being used at No. 6 or 7 in the tour of England that year, he was pushed to No. 5 against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup to take on left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz and leg-spinner Shadab Khan. While it did not create much of a difference back then, Axar returned for the same role two years hence, against the same side, on a tricky New York track, to score a valiant 20 off 18, which played a vital role in India's win.

Axar, however, resumed his familiar batting role for the remainder of the games, and expected the same on Saturday as well, when India were up against South Africa in the final, only to be taken aback by coach Dravid patting on his back to gear up after the dismissal of Suryakumar Yadav in the fifth over.

After the match, when veteran cricketer Dinesh Karthik asked Axar about the change in batting position, he credited Dravid for the tactical masterstroke.

“Not today (on whether he was expecting to bat up the order). I thought I would be going down the order. But when we lost three wickets early, suddenly Rahul bhai told me, 'Axar, pad up.' I did not even get the chance to think about my batting, so that worked for me,” he told Star Sports.

With India three down for 34, Axar negated the South African attack for the remainder of the nine balls in the powerplay before dictating the terms in the 72-run partnership off 54 balls, where Virat Kohli, who carved out an aggressive knock against the new ball, struggled to score a single boundary. He smashed a counter-attacking 47 off 31, lacing four sixes, and thus took the game away from the Proteas. The knock did not just help Kohli loosen up for some power-hitting in the death overs, it also laid the foundation for Shivam Dube to play freely as India amassed a match-winning 176 for seven.

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