With Team India ending Day 3 with a lead of 63 runs, fans and experts were left praising Axar Patel for his five-wicket haul against New Zealand in the ongoing first Test match in Kanpur on Saturday. This was the all-rounder's fifth five-wicket haul in four Test matches and even his teammate Ravichandran Ashwin was left impressed. Speaking via BCCI, the veteran Ashwin decided to ask Axar about the secret behind his deliveries and received a funny reply. "You spin the ball too much and that's why it beats the batsman. My ball doesn't turn that much. It turns a little so it is enough to take the edge", quipped Axar, when asked about his low deliveries by his spin partner.
The BCCI shared the video of Ashwin, Axar's banter on social media and captioned it as, "Special: @ashwinravi99 takes centre stage to interview Mr. Fifer @akshar2026 & Super sub @KonaBharat. You don't want to miss this rendezvous with the #TeamIndia trio after Day 3 of the Kanpur Test."
Here is the video:
India ended Day 3 with a second innings score of 14 for one at Stumps, thereby taking a lead of 63 runs. Earlier, New Zealand could only muster 296, in reply to India's first innings total of 345.
Axar was in brilliant form for India, accounting for the dismissals of Tom Latham (95), Ross Taylor (11), Henry Nicholls (2), Tom Blundell (13) and Tim Southee (5).
India are looking to build a big lead in their second innings on Sunday.