Virat Kohli's Heartwarming Reaction After Seeing Axar Patel Shocked After Best Fielder Nomination

Bridgetown (Barbados): Indian batter Virat Kohli couldn’t control his laughter as Axar Patel himself was left shocked after Indian cricket team coach T Dilip announced that the left-arm spinner was the one of the medal contenders on the field after India’s Super Eight clash against Afghanistan at Kensington Oval. stadium here Thursday.

The Rohit Sharma-led side put up another clinical performance in all three departments of the game to emerge victorious against Afghanistan by 47 runs.

Captain Rohit and the team management decided to go for three spinners in the match as pacer Mohammed Siraj was replaced by China’s Kuldeep Yadav in the line-up. It turned out to be an exceptional decision as Axar Patel’s 12-run cameo from six balls helped India cross the elusive 180-run mark, the highest team total for India in the current competition so far. Apart from his batting, he also bowled three very economical overs, conceding only five runs per over and collecting a wicket of Ibrahim Zadran, the fifth highest run-getter of the tournament.

The tradition of awarding the medal to the best fielder after every match has continued from the 2023 ODI World Cup to the T20 World Cup. Defensive coach Dilip praised the team’s situational awareness during the match, without making any mistakes on the field. Dilip then revealed the nominees for the award with Arshdeep Singh being the first nominee, Ravindra Jadeja the second nominee for the award before moving on to Axar.

The all-rounder was in shock upon hearing his name and his eyes were wide, his eyebrows raised and his jaws open in surprise. The expression on his face made Kohli laugh. Axar had taken over to remove the dangerous Azmatullah Omarzai.

Talking about Axar’s brilliance on the field, Dilip said, “He is someone who is very consistent in what he does, what he does on the field goes very unnoticed, but the amount of “The effort he put into the training session today reflected that. Very good catch, but also the intention with which he ran from position to position.”

The final contender for the award was Rishabh Pant, who took three catches during the match and registered a unique record to his credit, becoming the wicketkeeper with the most dismissals in a single edition of the T20 World Cup . In the end, the award went to Jadeja and was presented by Indian head coach Rahul Dravid, who was then lifted by the former.

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