Team India all-rounder Axar Patel explained the story behind his viral moment with Virat Kohli from the 2021 pink-ball Test against England. The match was played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Axar Patel had a brilliant game with the ball. His excellent bowling left the England batters clueless as they suffered a 10-wicket defeat. Axar was awarded ‘Player of the Match’ as well. Post the game, a moment where Virat Kohli praised him in Gujarati (Axar’s mother tongue) went viral.
Kohli walked upto Axar and praised him, saying:
“Baapu tari bowling kamal che (Your bowling is great).”
The all-rounder explained that Kohli gave a pause after ‘Baapu tari’, and then went on to complete the sentence, which became a hilarious moment. He revealed the backstory where Kohli, hailing from Delhi, would often ask Axar for cuss words in Gujarati for fun.
“The story behind this was different. You know what kind of words Delhi people like. He keeps asking me what to say in Gujarati. So suddenly, he came and said ‘Baapu Tari…’ and then went like ‘bowling kamal che’. I told, okay, okay, this is right,” he said on the 2 Sloggers’ YouTube channel.
In that particular match, Axar Patel bagged a total of 11 wickets. He returned figures of 6/38 in the first innings and backed it up with figures of 5/32 in the second.
Axar Patel opens up on hilarious moment involving Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj
In the same episode, Axar Patel also opened up on a hilarious moment during India’s recent home Test against the West Indies in Delhi, involving pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.
He revealed that Bumrah had promised Siraj to give him his perfume. However, Bumrah ended up handing it over to the West Indies’ vice-captain Jomel Warrican. Axar then informed Siraj about the same.
“Jassi bhai (Bumrah) had promised Siraj that we would get him a perfume. During the Test against the West Indies in Delhi, their vice-captain Jomel Warrican asked which perfume it was and that it was nice, so he gave the perfume to Warrican. So I just added fuel to the fire. Jassi bhai has the best perfume collection,” he said.
Notably, Axar Patel was in the squad for the West Indies Tests, but did not play a single game in the two-match series.
Edited by Rishab Vm
