Premier Team India all-rounders Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja engaged in an hilarious banter after the hosts defeated Australia in the second Test in New Delhi. Team India have been dominant at home, courtesy of their spin trio of Axar, Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.

The trio have picked up 32 of the 40 wickets that fell for Australia at the half-way mark of the four-Test series. However, it is Jadeja and Ashwin, who have done most of the damage with the ball.

Returning to the national team fold after recovering from injury, Jadeja has bowled 65 overs so far while Ashwin has delivered 67. The situation has sidelined Axar from bowling frequently as his senior compatriots have taken over the charge and delivered in unison.

IND vs AUS: Excerpts from the Axar Patel-Ravindra Jadeja banter

Axar: Sir, meri toh bowling aa nahi rahi. (I am not getting to bowl much overs) Are you bowling like this because you don’t want to give Axar overs and if not, what is the mindset?

“Nothing like that (laughs). When you have such wickets in India, the role of a spinner obviously comes to the fore, the responsibility increases too. They (Australia) prefer the sweep and reverse-sweep more so the aim was to bowl wicket-to-wicket line and length so that if they miss, the ball that stayed low would crash onto the stumps. Luckily that’s what happened today. Heard the sound of five stumps getting crashed loudly,” said Jadeja.

Jadeja: By the way, even I have a question for you. You haven’t got the opportunity to bowl much in the last two Tests, that’s fine, but when you walk out to bat, you don’t look like getting out. It’s almost as if you are batting on another surface altogether. What’s that about? When you are batting it doesn’t feel that we are playing on a turning track or a pitch that has low bounce. In fact, you make the wicket look flat and their bowlers ordinary.

“The last time I came with you, you said to me that they were targeting my pads. So, all I did was try and avoid that. I had a cautious approach towards my batting. I think the confidence from the lesson has helped my batting. When I bat, I just think of hitting the deliveries that are in the slot and respect the good ones. That’s what I do and this time they also had a left arm spinner so that was always very tempting to go after. I thought I have been facing off-spinners since a long time so this was a different,” said Axar.