-1783605891768.webp)
India all-rounder Axar Patel is set to achieve a major career milestone as he prepares to play his 100th T20I during the fourth match against England on Thursday. Earlier in the series, he also completed 100 wickets in the format, making the ongoing England tour one of the most memorable of his career.
Speaking in a video shared by bcci.tv, Axar admitted that reaching the 100-match mark was never something he had imagined when he made his T20I debut back in 2015.
View this post on Instagram
“When I first played a T20I, I never imagined I would play 100 matches. This tour of England will be very special for me because, like in the second T20, I completed my 100 wickets and in the fourth T20, it’s my 100th match. So it’s a very special day for me, and I am really enjoying the moment.
“It really feels good. Basically, as a player, when you achieve a milestone, I feel it’s not about me; I am not achieving this alone. You know that along with me, my teammates, my coaches, my family… So I think everyone has played a role in this journey of mine.
“When you start, when you debut for the first time, that’s a completely different feeling. Back then you don’t know how much you will achieve, but I am going to play my 100th match and that feeling you really can’t express. Even if you play a single match for India, that is huge for you because it’s a player’s dream,” he said.
Axar looked back on his journey and described it as a mix of highs and lows. After featuring only occasionally in the first few years of his international career, he became a regular member of India’s T20I side from 2021 onwards. During that period, he also played an important role in India’s T20 World Cup-winning campaigns in 2024 and 2026.
“When you play for such a long time, that journey is obviously like a roller-coaster, sometimes up and sometimes down. In the first 5 or 6 years, I played only 15 or 16 matches, and then from 2021 till now I think I have played continuously.
“We have the last two T20 World Cups with us. We won for the first time in 2024 and for a second time in 2026, so when you play your 100th match, all of this journey and those memories come together, and I think those special memories have been made,” he said.
The left-arm spinner said that while milestones are nice to achieve, he values the effort and improvement that go into reaching them more than the numbers themselves.
ALSO READ: WATCH: Rashid Khan Breaks Down in Tears While Bidding Farewell To Ex-Teammate Shapoor Zadran
“Milestones doesn’t matter that much to me, but yes, sometimes it does feel good that you are taking 100 T20 wickets. It’s a milestone, all the hard work we have put in over the years and after that, whenever things went well or went badly, we have learned from the mistakes; we focussed on how we could get better. I feel we focussed on our process; we kept getting better day by day,” he said.
Axar also spoke about how he has changed as a cricketer over the last 11 years. He believes experience has made him calmer and better equipped to deal with pressure compared to when he first broke into the Indian team.
“I know this much, in my first match, I was man-of-the-match. I took three wickets, giving away nine runs or maybe 18 or 20 runs.
“There is a big change between the Axar Patel of today and the Axar Patel of back then. 2015 and 2026, I think 11 years is a very long time. The more mistakes you make, the more you learn along with them.
“When you are a young blood, you think ‘Oh let me do this, let me do that’. So I think the difference between that Axar and today’s Axar is just that I am much calmer now, handling pressure and all that has become easier. At that time, everything felt new. If I had met that Axar before, I would have told him, ‘learn from your mistakes as much as possible’.”