Patel took 6 for 55 in Delhi's first innings. This was his first five-wicket haul in his first-class career in only his second match.

Patel played just one first-class game in his debut season for Gujarat, but had a more successful showing in 2013. Slotted primarily as a bowling allrounder, the left-arm spinner got his first IPL contract with Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2013, although he was on the bench for the entire season.

He was one of the key contributors to India Under-23s' title win in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup 2013, with seven wickets, including a four-for in the semi-final against UAE. He was one of the consistent performers for Gujarat in the 2013/14 Ranji Trophy, finishing the season with 369 runs at an average of 46.12 and 29 wickets at 23.58. In early 2014, he was named the BCCI Under-19 cricketer of the year for the 2012/13 season.

Axar was signed up by the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians in 2013 and then by Kings XI Punjab in 2014. He had an impressive season with Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2014 with 17 wickets. He was rightly named the 'Emerging Player of the Year' for IPL 2014. He was retained by the Kings XI Punjab for the 2015 IPL season for his impressive performances in the previous edition. Batting lower down the order, he scored 206 runs for the Kings XI Punjab in 2015 in addition to taking wickets.^[9] On 1 May 2016, during a match against the Gujarat Lions, he took four wickets in five balls, including the first (and only) hat-trick of the 2016 IPL season, to pave the way for Kings XI Punjab's 23-run win against table-toppers Gujarat Lions in Rajkot.^[10]. He was retained by Kings XI Punjab for the 2018 season.

After excellent performance in the 2014 IPL, Axar was rewarded with a place in the Indian ODI squad for the tour to Bangladesh ^[11] and made his ODI debut in the first match of series at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium and took 1/59 runs.

Patel got a call up for the 5 match ODI series against West Indies and played in the 4th ODI where he only conceded 26 runs for 2 wickets in his 10 overs.

He was also a part of 15 man Squad for the 5 match series against Sri Lanka where he played in all 5 matches and took 11 wickets and made 31 runs at a strike rate of 178.

He was part of India's 15-man squad for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

He made his Twenty20 International debut for India against Zimbabwe on 17 July 2015.^[12]

On 20 June 2016, Axar moved to 13th place in ICC ODI rankings after he took three wickets against Zimbabwe, he was just three places behind India's highest ranked bowler Ravichandran Ashwin.

Axar's family resides in Nad