Axar's deceptive simplicity dismantles Australia's threat

T20 unfolds so quickly it is sometimes difficult to figure out what is going on or what has caused the goings-on. One moment Australia are looking comfortable chasing 168, the next they are getting out hooking Shivam Dube. Before you know it, Washington Sundar is on a hat-trick, and India have won the Carrara Oval T20I by 48 runs.

Australia had been dominating the game. An Arshdeep Singh over had gone for 15, Varun Chakravarthy had been pulled for a huge six, and India needed an intervention to stay alive in the contest.

At this juncture, Axar Patel came on inside the powerplay and dragged Australia back, executing a simple plan to perfection. He said he was looking to bowl the 5-6m length to batters looking to hit down the ground, and full to those looking to sweep.

Axar used his wide release to create an angle into the right-hand batters in the Australian line-up, cramping them for room. Only eight of the balls that Axar bowled in his night's work of 4-0-20-2 ended up outside off at the plane of the stumps. Everything else was either hitting the stumps or following batters who were backing away to create room. Not one ball let them play an attacking shot off the back foot.

Axar got Matt Short on the sweep, but the incredible part was that he landed the ball full enough to defy that angle, and both hit the batter in line and be projected to hit the stumps. He also convinced his captain to take the review when the umpire, understandably, didn't quite believe both were possible. Against Josh Inglis, Axar saw the advance down the wicket and both slowed the ball down and pulled his length back.

This was a crucial spell because Axar was the fourth bowler India tried, and their options for the fifth bowler were Dube, Washington, who hadn't bowled in the third T20I because of the right-hander-heavy line-up, and Abhishek Sharma. India needed some asking-rate pressure for any of these bowlers to be effective. Axar created that with three overs for 17 runs out of the first nine, giving India a chance to be able to use the uneven bounce and the big square boundaries; Dube, for one, did this with smart use of off-pace bouncers.

For all of Axar's bowling smarts, limited-overs cricket is too unforgiving for specialist fingerspinners to thrive in, but his batting has also been a big part of India's domination in T20 cricket. Here at Carrara Oval, he had scored an unbeaten 11-ball 21 that included a final-over push that took them to a fighting total.

With increasing batting responsibilities both at Delhi Capitals and in ODIs, Axar has flourished as an allrounder in limited-overs cricket. He is one half of the cheat code - Hardik Pandya is the other - that gives India depth in both departments.

You can easily imagine teams that will be happy to play just Axar the batter. Unlike Ravindra Jadeja, India's T20 spin allrounder before Axar and for a while alongside him, it is not easy to shut Axar down. He can be a spin disruptor, he can play like a proper middle-order batter, and he can also bat at the death.

This was Axar's eighth Player-of-the-Match award in T20Is, which moved him past another left-arm spinner and batter, Yuvraj Singh. Only Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma have won more match awards for India. If this is not enough to prove his value, consider this. You can find substitutes for most players in Indias' line-up, who may not be as good as the player they've replaced but can still do a job. It is nigh on impossible to find someone who does what Axar does.