IPL 2018: Axar Patel picks one team for the final of the tournament

KXIP at present has very high chances of making it to the playoffs, even though they lost their previous match to Mumbai Indians, thanks to Suryakumar Yadav’s fifty, and a quick knock of 24 by captain Rohit Sharma to finish the game. A couple of wins would cement KXIP’s place for the next round matches.

Retained KXIP player Axar Patel emphasised the fact that having Ravi Ashwin as their captain has helped him as a bowler himself, in the few matches he has played. KXIP is the only team with a bowler at the helm, and they surprised everyone when they announced that at the beginning of this year’s IPL. But Ashwin has done well as a skipper, as his team sits in the fourth position on the table, with 10 points from 8 matches.

As a bowler, communication and strategy-making become much easier if you have a bowler as the team-leader, thinks Axar. “As a bowler, it is always good to have a captain who is a bowler himself. The communication about how to make strategies against a particular batsman and all gets easier in such a case because at the end of the day, only a bowler can understand a bowler fully. And of course, it has been a great experience playing under Ashwin, because he keeps giving ideas on areas to work on and how to improve.”

Impressed with CSK

Among the other teams, Axar spoke highly of Chennai Super Kings, who have been religiously consistent about getting into the playoffs throughout all the years of IPL. “I think Chennai Super Kings are doing well and can make it [to the finals]. If you see, they have one new player being the match-winner in every other game, and both their batting and bowling units are firing. Based on how they are playing right now, they stand a strong chance of making it to the finals.”

CSK rose to the top of the table after defeating RCB by 6 wickets in the noon match yesterday, but only for a while. A win in the 8 pm match put Sunrisers Hyderabad back at the top. They both share equal points, but SRH has a higher run rate.

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