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During the India vs England 2nd T20I at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, India were on top of their game while defending the target of 191 runs. Until Harry Brook counter-attacked but Axar Patel dismissed him in a most unfortunate manner while playing a sweep outside leg stump; The English captain was caught behind.
Ishan Kishan took a sensational catch and the 50-run partnership was broken by Axar Patel, who achieved one of the rarest milestones in T20I cricket. He became the first Indian male spinner to complete 100 wickets in T20Is. Brook was out after playing a stormy innings of 38 runs in 14 balls.
Akshar Patel created history against England
In the shortest format of the game, Axar Patel was ahead of Team India’s two best white-ball spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal (96) and Kuldeep Yadav (95) with 99 wickets. Axar’s bowling figures were 3/9, coming at an impressive average of 21.43, underscoring an effective spell with the ball.
The all-rounder maintained excellent control throughout and achieved regular successes. For India, only Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have touched the 100-wicket mark; Thus, Akshar’s milestone is a historic event in the country’s T20I history.
Akshar Patel against England
He has maintained an economy rate of 7.39; The left-arm spinner kept control of the scoring while picking up important wickets, leading to extremely impressive performances for the team across all formats, especially against England as he performed phenomenally against the Three Lions by taking 11 wickets in 12 matches. He has always been active against England with an economy of 7.67.
Akshar Patel has bowled three overs, 1/12 in the evening and has excelled in varying his pace. He also featured in both T20Is against Ireland in Belfast in June 2026, but managed to take only two wickets in the opening match of the series and no wickets in the second match.
Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan holds the overall record for most wickets (193) taken by a spinner in T20Is, followed by New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi and England’s Adil Rashid. India’s spinners have been underrated in terms of their T20I bowling; This performance will definitely give him some confidence.
India made a good score
Talking about the match, Indian captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided to bat first. The Men in Blue made just one change as Vaibhav Suryavanshi finally made his senior debut, with Sanju Samson making way for the 15-year-old, who started his career decently by scoring 14 runs from 10 balls.
Abhishek Sharma scored 43 runs in 24 balls, and Ishan Kishan scored 49 runs in 40 balls along with Shreyas Iyer, who played a crucial inning of 37 runs. Vice-captain Tilak Verma’s quick, impressive knock of 24 off 11 balls helped India cross the 180-run mark and post a score of 190/7 in 20 overs.
Chasing the target, England lost two wickets inside the first over, with both openers Jos Buttler and Phil Salt out for ducks and Arshdeep Singh picking them up.
