Magic doesn’t work without belief — sport keeps reminding the world. In the World T20 semi-final at Wankhede, had it not been for Axar Patel’s conviction to reach and grab the near-impossible catch, Jasprit Bumrah’s classic con to deceive the dangerous Harry Brook with his near-perfect first-ball off-cutter would have been a non-event. It certainly wouldn’t have the nation reliving the spectacular, game-changing moment on loop.
Consider what that catch actually demanded. First, Axar had to run at top speed, then guess when the ball would emerge over the back of his head, and decelerate to position himself exactly where it would drop. Once there, he had to steady himself, maintain balance, perfectly position his hands, and hold on firmly before hitting the ground. This wasn’t easy. Without belief, he might not even have reached the ball, forget catching it. It was a daring effort with a high risk of injury — though Axar hates the word daring, a nugget he shared with this newspaper recently.
“The word daring gives the feels of tukka,” he said. His cricketing edifice stands on confidence — in others’ words, conviction and belief.
Axar had proven again that it is belief that drives players to run like maniacs and push human limits to the brink. It is when the special ones seize the moment in crunch situations that champion teams are set apart. Miracles are what the uninitiated call it — faith is what actually moves mountains.
Manchester United’s legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson would often be asked how his team regularly scored in the dying minutes. He would laugh at critics who called his side lucky. For Sir Alex, it was the same old belief that made the difference. That explained why in the dying minutes of the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich, right-back Gary Neville sprinted about 60 metres across the pitch to take a throw-in, as if his life depended on it. Lesser players might have given up — not those driven to believe they are destined to remain undefeated.
Neville was once asked why he didn’t snap out of the spell even when the referee was watching his clock, readying to blow the final whistle. “Why did I do that? What was I doing running all that way? And it’s simple, really: it’s what I’d been taught to do since I was a kid at United. You keep playing, you keep driving. You keep believing,” he said.
Axar is a simple man with simple methods, like Neville. See the Brook catch on loop and keep Neville’s words in mind. That explains how he reached a ball that was looping behind his back.
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This is the character trait that has made him the team’s crisis man across all formats — with bat, ball and in the field. It is this same confidence that made him shout out to captain Suryakumar Yadav that he was keen to bowl the 20th over. After the match he told his statemate and senior Parthiv Patel with a trademark chuckle: “Arre, I wouldn’t have conceded five sixes, that I know.”
With the game over, Axar reverts to his off-field persona — cracking back-slapping jokes, showing no after-effects of a situation that gives life-long trauma to lesser players. But don’t let the goofy post-match image fool you. His game-face hides a fierce desperation to do well at all costs. There is more to Axar than meets the eye.
𝗕𝗮𝗽𝘂 𝗯𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗸𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘆𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗸 𝗵𝗮𝗶. 🥵
ICC Men’s #T20WorldCup | FINAL | #INDvNZ | SUN, 8th MAR, 5:30 PM pic.twitter.com/4e06e0SYAv
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) March 5, 2026
In an old interview, the player who wears his star status lightly was asked if he was the fun-loving school kid who hung out with back-benchers but still ended up a class-topper. He smiled and nodded.
India’s Axar Patel, left, passes the ball to teammate Shivam Dube to dismiss England’s Will Jacks during the T20 World Cup cricket semi-final match between India and England in Mumbai, India, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
When pointing to the nuance of the Brook catch to Parthiv, he hints at the art and science of fielding without intellectualising cricket. “Just before the catch, I had to pause a bit,” he says. On the screen behind him, Parthiv plays the moment but struggles to freeze the frame — it is such a split-second that the pause button can’t nail it. The two Gujarati boys have a laugh.
Axar’s second stunning moment from the semis — the Will Jacks grab with a tiny assist from Dube — was equally about belief and a “fraction-of-a-second decision.”
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Running at breakneck speed, metres from the boundary rope, he needed to apply the brakes. Torso twisted, legs flying, the physics of a body in motion would surely have carried him over the line. But while focused on the dropping ball, he caught Dube from the corner of his eye and flicked it into his hands. As Neville said — Axar was playing, driving, believing. He was also thinking.
One needs to be in Zen mode for that presence of mind. By his own admission, Axar sticks to a non-interfering ‘kaam karo aur niklo chup-chaap’ motto at his workplace. But his deeds speak — they’re what made him India vice-captain and an IPL skipper.
Despite his steady rise, he remains a simpleton from Nadiad, a temple town near Ahmedabad. Had it not been for his belief, he could have been like many from his hometown — spending a lifetime hanging around culverts and the canal, with sweet sugary tea, garlic bhajiya and good jokes. It’s a world far removed from the one where Axar plays, drives, believes, thinks and weaves his magic.
