Axar Patel to play for Durham in county cricket

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Bengaluru, April 9: India left-arm spinner Axar Patel will play six County games for Durham in the 2018 season.

The Durham CC announced the decision on Monday (April 9) via an e-mail.

The India international spinner Axar Patel has enjoyed success in first-class cricket for his state side Gujarat and is a key part of India's T20I & ODI squads, as well as of the IPL side King's XI Punjab.

Axar will arrive at Chester-le-Street mid-August and will make his debut against Glamorgan at the SSE SWALEC ground on Sunday August 19.

The all-rounder will then play three four-day fixtures at Emirates Riverside against Northamptonshire, Sussex and Middlesex and will face Leicester at the Fischer County Ground and Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

After making his first-class debut in 2012, Patel took his maiden five-wicket haul in just his second match for Gujarat, returning figures of 6-55 in 45 overs against Delhi.

Overall, he has taken 79 first-class wickets in 23 matches, including 14 in two matches for India 'A' against South Africa 'A' in 2015.

Patel has one first-class hundred to his name, an unbeaten 110 against Baroda in 2016, and has scored a further 10 half centuries in scoring 1,163 first-class runs at a lofty average of 48.45.

In limited overs cricket, the 24-year-old has represented India 49 times - 38 in ODIs and 11 in T20Is.
Axar is currently 14th in the ICC ODI bowling rankings.

Axar Patel is the latest Indian cricketer to join county cricket after skipper Virat Kohli signed up with Surrey ahead India's tour of England beginning late June.

Others like Varun Aaron (Leicestershire), Cheteshwar Pujara (Yorkshire) and Ishant Sharma (Sussex) have already inked deals with other counties. In fact, Pujara is only the third Indian to play for Yorkshire after Sachin Tendulkar in the 90s and later Yuvraj Singh.