India vs New Zealand, 1st Test: Axar Patel says teammates ‘teasing’ him after 5th five-wicket haul in 7 innings

India off-spinner Axar Patel’s dream start to his Test career continued on Saturday as he bagged yet another five-wicket haul in red-ball cricket during the ongoing match against New Zealand in Kanpur.

Axar Patel bagged 5 for 62 in New Zealand’s first innings to become the joint-second fastest bowler to take 5 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket along with Australia’s Charlie Turner (1887-1888) and England’s Tom Richardson (1893-1895).

All three achieved the feat in their seventh Test, just one behind former Aussie pacer and record-holder Rodney Hogg (1978).

IND vs NZ, 1st Test: Day 3 Highlights

“Taking five wickets in seven innings is something the other teammates have been teasing me about. It’s like a dream within a dream start. Test cricket isn’t easy.

“When they were no loss at stumps yesterday, it seemed like a difficult situation. This is the kind of pitch where you can’t expect wickets all the time. You have to be consistent with your line and length.

“I have been using the crease well. I have a round-arm action, and that was working well on this pitch. I would bowl from wide of the crease and something would happen. I think that troubled them,” Axar said on Star Sports after the day’s play.

Axar got great support from Ravichandran Ashwin (3 for 82), Umesh Yadav (1 for 50) and Ravindra Jadeja (1 for 57) from the other end as India bowled out New Zealand for 296 to take a first innings lead of 49 runs. Tom Latham top-scored for the tourists with 95 and his opening partner Will Young contributed 89.

India came out to bat for 5 overs in the final moments of Day 3 and made 14 for 1 till stumps. The hosts lost the wicket of Shubman Gill for 1 in the 2nd over to Kyle Jamieson before Cheteshwar Pujara (9*) and Mayank Agarwal (4*) took the team to the close of play with a lead of 63 runs.