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Shridhar Mandale and Bharat Mistry

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He enjoyed playing lofted shots right from his U-14 and U-16 days, and during a Vijay Merchant (U-16) West Zone tournament, he got out to such lofty shots in two successive matches after a good start about 15 years ago. Some of the Gujarat selectors wanted to drop him from the XI for playing reckless shots, but he had the strong backing of the other selectors. “I had seen his potential and knew that he had to be told to be more serious and thoughtful about his shot selection,” a former Gujarat left-arm spinner and then senior selector for the Gujarat junior team, told mid-day.

Gujarat’s match was against Mumbai in Nadiad, and former Mumbai Ranji player Shridhar Mandale was in Nadiad with the Mumbai team as a mentor. “I asked Mandale to speak to Axar,” the former Gujarat Ranji star and Mandale’s West Zone U-22 teammate, said. He added that after Mandale spoke to the southpaw, Axar cried. “I told Axar that your tears show that you have realised your mistakes,” the senior selector added.

Another Nadiadi (Nadiad resident) left-arm all-rounder was also a selector and backed Axar. “I saw myself in Axar as he bowled left-arm spin like me and batted aggressively like I used to bat in my younger days,” said Bharat Mistry, who turned up for Gujarat 52 times in the Ranji Trophy.

With the backing of these two selectors, Axar was retained, and in the third match at Rajkot, after Mandale’s words of wisdom, he scored a hundred. “We backed him and he justified our decision,” Mistry told mid-day. He added that after that century in Rajkot against Saurashtra, Axar never looked back and kept progressing to a higher level. On Saturday, he scaled one more peak as more such peaks await the 30-year-old Bapu.