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Axar Patel, Chakravarthy And Washington Sundar Seek Blessings Of Lord Jagannath In Puri

Bhargav Dixit

Indian players visit Lord Jagannath temple. [Source: @anandt2011/X]Indian players visit Lord Jagannath temple. [Source: @anandt2011/X]


Indian spin trio comprising Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar paid a visit to Lord Jagannath temple in Puri a day before the second ODI against England in Cuttack. Photos and videos of the same are going viral across social media presence.

Post the first ODI at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, teams landed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneshwar, on Friday. With the airport in Cuttack exclusively reserved for military purposes, commercial flights land in the capital city of the Indian state of Odisha. Since Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar are considered as twin cities, such arrangements are often followed by high-profile individuals.

For those who don’t know, Puri, a coastal city in Eastern India, is a 100-minute drive from Bhubaneshwar. Having sought blessings of Lord Jagannath, a form of Lord Vishnu and his siblings, Patel, Chakravarthy and Sundar will join the rest of the squad for the evening’s practice session at the Barabati Stadium.

Visiting religious places before international matches is a common ritual among Indian cricketers. Post the ongoing three-match ODI series against India, India will travel to Dubai for ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Therefore, not a bad time for players to pay homage to the almighty.

Axar Patel and Washington Sundar Are On-field Competitors

As far as the team combination is concerned, Patel and Sundar are on-field competitors in spite of playing for the same team because of what they offer.

While Chakravarthy is yet to debut in ODI cricket, Patel and Sundar literally compete for the all-rounder’s role. As left-handed batters, both of them have been promoted in the batting order under the name of variance lately.

Patel, however, is up the pecking order because of his contributions across formats. Even in the first Nagpur ODI on Thursday, his third ODI half-century played a key role in steering India to a clinical 4-wicket victory.