Axar is now a superstar in hometown Nadiad

For a family which spent the better part of their son’s career getting people to notice him, the ‘Rajkiran’ household is caught up in a frenzy of attention, and they didn’t even have to put up a giant screen on the street as they would to warrant it.

Axar Patel had to pick up 18 wickets in his first two matches as a Test cricketer for India, and voila!

All roads in Nadiad - some 60 km from Ahmedabad - now lead to the left-armer’s typical Gujarati upper-middle-class home. The maze-like bungalow sits at a vantage point in the township and houses a small army of family members. The spectacle doesn’t leave much for imagination as it’s about as quintessential as Indian townships come. But things are changing fast.

Axar Patel's parents (from left) Rajeshbhai, Preity, his cousin Sanship (right) and other family members. Credit: DH Photo

The uncomplicated life isn’t so anymore with more and more people visiting Nadiad to get a piece of the left-arm spinner’s story. Then there’s the regular crowd which throngs the gates of the cramped property every day to watch ‘hamara ladka’ (our boy) go about his life.

This degree of fame is so new that parents Rajeshbhai and Preity aren’t averse to throwing the doors open, yet. Privacy is still conceptual for they disclosed more than they intended to during this interaction, but the unsophistication is understandable. They weren’t prepared for a meteoric rise.

In fact, when the nurse at the hospital made an error in spelling his name - Axar instead of Akshar as intended - they let it go. “Who would have thought he would become this big?!’ says cousin Sanship to evoke a hearty laugh from the entire family before the father proceeds to talk of the 27-year-old’s journey.

Rajeshbhai, a fertiliser distributor, wanted his son to take up cricket, but Priety didn’t. Rajeshbhai presented the then 12-year-old Axar a choice: cricket or studies. The scrawny paceman with already-famous ability with the bat picked sport, and he was sent to an academy in Kheda.

“My wife didn’t want Axar to play because she was scared he was going to get hit by the ball,” remembers Rajeshbhai, who still wears heavy scars of a near-death accident from two years ago, with the occasional stutter. “I didn’t want my son to think the man of the house couldn’t make a decision so I asked a friend at the Kheda District Cricket Academy to take him in,” Rajeshbhai chuckles.

The scrawny teenager loved bowling quick, but an accident involving a spade left a gash in his leg, forcing young Axar to bowl spin to scratch the itch. Though Axar made his way up age-group cricket quickly, he didn’t garner much attention, not even in Nadiad.

Though the state of the J&J Science College doesn’t inspire confidence, the KDCA ground inside is in stellar shape. “I watched him when he was a pacer here,” says former local umpire Dipak Thakar. “Sometimes you just know that some players have it in them.”

“Once he made it to the Gujarat team, people began to notice him more,” says Sanship. “Everyone knew our house after that. But once the IPL happened, he was a star.”

But all that stardom was for nought when Rajeshbhai met with the accident. The globetrotting cricketer turned homebound son as he cared for his father, who had little hope of recovering, as best he could. Rajeshbhai eventually recovered, but the remnants of the accident are gruesome enough as his skull caves in on the left.

The grey cloud of that ‘dark period’ eventually lifted and things were looking up for Axar professionally too. Though snapped up by Mumbai Indians in 2013, Axar got his first real chance in 2014 with Kings XI Punjab. He also made his ODI debut the same year against Bangladesh. Since then he has played 38 ODIs and 11 Twenty20 Internationals but the Test reward avoided him with Ravindra Jadeja, his Statemate, in command of the left-arm orthodox demand.

Jadeja injured himself during the Tests against Australia and Axar was in the playing XI for the second Test against England in Chennai. Since his debut on Valentines Day, 2/13, 5/60, 6/38 and 5/32 are his figures.

“Idhar, ya uske room mein, hi lataka hua rehta hein jab ghar aata hein, video game khelta hein ya phone pe hota hein (he’s usually hanging around here or in his room playing video games or on the phone),” says Sanship, pointing to the couch in the living room. “There’s usually a crowd outside to see him these days so he only goes for a drive at night.”

And so begins Axar’s true test.