'Want to get more out of him at the Delhi Capitals this year' - Ricky Ponting sets plans for Axar Patel after recent all-round show

India retained the Border Gavaskar Trophy in style after defeating Australia by 2-1 in the four-match Test series. Winning the first two games, India lost the third Test but managed to pull off a draw, courtesy of centuries by Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli. Now that the Test series has concluded, the two sides have started preparing for the upcoming three-match ODI series.

Players who performed well in the Tests and are a part of the ODIs will be expected to do well. The Men in Blue, after the conclusion of the ODI series, will shift their focus to the 16^th edition of the Indian Premier League which is set to begin on March 31. Delhi Capitals will be without the services of skipper Rishabh Pant and hence David Warner was named the leaders, with Axar Patel his deputy.

Axar Patel has shown immense improvement as an all-rounder across formats over the past couple years. He played a key role during the recently concluded Test series against Australia and got very close to claiming his maiden Test ton. The 29-year-old impressed his Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting as the former Aussie international discussed how Patel's improvement as a potent batter was aided by “little technique changes” that were made while he represented the franchise.

“I’ve known Axar for a long time and he was only a young boy in the squad at Mumbai when I first went there. I’ve known that there’s been a certain amount of batting skill there that really, apart from the last couple of years, he hadn’t really been showing at the IPL level or even at the international level,” Ponting told the ICC Review.

“There were a few little technique changes that we made with him. We just tried to open him up a little bit, which gave him a little bit more access to the ball. He's always been a beautiful offside player. You know, his cover driving and cutting is as good as anyone's. And if anything, he was just a little bit too blocked off to be able to score well on the leg side.

Axar is good enough to bat No.6 probably in an IPL team: Ponting

So far at the IPL, Axar has picked 101 wickets at a decent economy of 7.25 and scored 1135 runs in 122 matches while batting down the order. In the 2022 edition of the IPL, he managed to score 182 runs in 13 matches and picked up six wickets. But ever since the conclusion of the cash-rich event, Axar has shown his prowess as an all-rounder for India across formats.

"I want to get a bit more out of him at the Delhi Capitals this year, that's for sure. A few times last year we sort of batted him up a little bit higher. I think he's good enough to bat No. 6 probably in an IPL team,” Ponting added.

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