Axar Patel has evolved into one of the most versatile white-ball all-rounders globally. Interestingly, his first name wasn’t always ‘Axar’. Despite this, the 28-year-old, now a consistent presence in the Indian team, hasn’t felt the need to rectify it.
Cricket journalist Jarrod Kimber disclosed the secret on his podcast recently. Watch the clip below…
The India all-rounder himself also clarified the confusion of his name change in a YouTube show a couple of years earlier.
“So the correct spelling of my name is ‘Akshar’. But I was in Bangalore for the U19 camp before the World Cup. The team was going to Australia. So everyone told me to get a passport made but I didn’t have one,” said the India cricketer on the YouTube show ‘Breakfast with Champions’ a couple of years earlier.
“I needed a leaving certificate and license. When I went to the school to take the leaving certificate, the principal made it ‘Axar’. I have no idea what he did. The NCA people said you usually write ‘Akshar’, then why is it ‘Axar’ in your passport? I called my dad and he said nothing can be changed. Then I was picked by Mumbai Indians and played for India too. So I thought everything is going good so let’s not disturb things,” he added.
Coming to the ongoing Test series, days after being added to the Indian squad for the remaining three Test matches against England, uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel on Wednesday said that if he makes his debut for the national team then he would like to dedicate it to his father.
In a recent video shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) official X (formerly Twitter) account, Jurel said that whenever he can’t understand something then he goes to his father, whom he also called his “hero” and added that his father has always guided him.
“If I get the Indian cap, I would like to dedicate this moment to my father. Because he’s my hero. Whenever I just fail to understand something, I just talk to him, and he always guides me,” Jurel said.
Earlier on Saturday, BCCI announced the squad for the remaining three Tests of the five-match series against England, with star batter Virat Kohli set to miss the remaining matches as well due to personal reasons.
Jurel was included in the squad and is likely to get his maiden India cap. Even though the 23-year-old batter is yet to make his debut he has displayed a quality performance in the iconic T20 tournament, Indian Premier League, where he appeared in 13 matches and scored 152 runs at 21.71 with a strike rate of 172.73.
The third Test will commence on February 15 in Rajkot while the fourth Test kickstarts in Ranchi on February 23 The fifth and final Test of the series will be played in Dharamsala from March 7. The series is currently level 1-1. After a 28-run loss in the first Hyderabad Test, India won the second Test at Visakhapatnam by 106 runs.
India’s updated Squad for the third Test: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), KS Bharat (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal.
