Axar Patel tells Ravindra Jadeja 'Meri toh bowling hi nahi aa rahi'; CSK all-rounder's reply leaves him speechless

Ravindra Jadeja has the perfect reply when Axar Patel complained jokingly that he isn't getting to bowl many overs in the Border Gavaskar trophy Test series between India and Australia.

We are just halfway through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and India's spinners are already all over Australia. The spin trio of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel have combined to take 32 of the 40 Australian wickets to fall, out of which 31 have belonged to the spin-twins Jadeja and Ashwin alone. Axar has picked only one wicket across Nagpur and Delhi Tests, but that also has to do with the fact that he has hardly bowled in the series. Surprisingly, Axar has delivered just 26 overs, once bowling only thrice and once in the second innings of the two Tests respectively.

Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja in a playful mood after India's 6-wicket win over Australia in Delhi. (BCCI)

Meanwhile, Jadeja and Ashwin have done bulk of the bowling for India with 67 and 65 overs respectively, a huge contrast given the number of overs Axar has bowled. Playing his comeback series, Jadeja has already grabbed two five-wicket-hauls, and Ashwin one, whereas Axar, with the ball, has hardly had an impact on the series. Speaking to Jadeja in a video uploaded by the BCCI after India defeated Australia by 6 wickets, Axar jokingly rued not getting to bowl much, to which the Chennai Super Kings all-rounder had the perfect answer.

Axar: Sir, meri toh bowling aa nahi rahi. (I am not getting to bowl much overs) Are you bowling like this because you don't want to give Axar overs and if not, what is the mindset?

Jadeja: By the way, even I have a question for you. You haven't got the opportunity to bowl much in the last two Tests, that's fine, but when you walk out to bat, you don't look like getting out. It's almost as if you are batting on another surface altogether. What's that about? When you are batting it doesn't feel that we are playing on a turning track or a pitch that has low bounce. In fact, you make the wicket look flat and their bowlers ordinary.

And rightly so. Axar had left a damning impact on India with the bat, scoring two half-centuries. In Nagpur, with India having lost a clutter of wickets, the pair of Axar and Jadeja added 88 runs for the eighth, bailed the team out of trouble and took their first innings score of 400. A week later in Delhi, Axar batted vehemently with the tail, scoring a career-best 84 and adding a century-partnership with Ashwin, also for the 7th wicket. Jadeja's assessment could not be more spot on as Axar explained the equation behind his batting approach.

"The last time I came with you, you said to me that they were targeting my pads. So, all I did was try and avoid that. I had a cautious approach towards my batting. I think the confidence from the lesson has helped my batting. When I bat, I just think of hitting the deliveries that are in the slot and respect the good ones. That's what I do and this time they also had a left arm spinner so that was always very tempting to go after. I thought I have been facing off-spinners since a long time so this was a different," said Axar.

Jadeja, with 17, the highest wicket-taker in the series, making it one of the most memorable comebacks in the history of Indian cricket. He achieved a rare rouble of scoring 2500 runs and taking 250 wickets in Test, also breaking Kapil Dev's record of grabbing a five-for and hitting a fifty in the same innings of a Test match the most times – 5 in Jadeja's case.

"Nothing like that (laughs). When you have such wickets in India, the role of a spinner obviously comes to the fore, the responsibility increases too. They (Australia) prefer the sweep and reverse-sweep more so the aim was to bowl wicket-to-wicket line and length so that if they miss, the ball that stayed low would crash onto the stumps. Luckily that's what happened today. Heard the sound of five stumps getting crashed loudly," said Jadeja.