Axar Patel Says He'd Have Rejected Delhi Capitals' Captaincy
Axar emegered as Delhi's sole hope in disastrous season (AP Photo)
The year 2023 has not been an auspicious year for Delhi Capitals (DC) as they endured one of their worst campaigns in the history of the IPL. They have been one of the worst-ranked teams sitting just ahead of Sunrisers Hyderabad who are at the number 10 position. The skipper David Warner came under immense fire for his sloppy leadership and for not being able to accelerate his scoring rate which lead to the undoing of his side on many occasions.
There were loopholes all around in the DC camp, but Axar Patel made sizeable contributions for his side, both with the bat and the ball. With David Warner fairly miserably as a captain, many experts believed that Axar could potentially be someone who could fill in the shoes of struggling Warner.
Axar is currently their second-highest run-scorer with 268 runs in 14 matches and their second-highest wicket-taker with 12 scalps in 9 matches this season.
But when he was asked about a potential leadership stint with the Capitals, Axar reckoned that he would reject such an offer as that would deteriorate the atmosphere of the DC camp.
"Mai chaalu series mey kisi ko kuch nahi bolta (I don’t say much during the mid-season). Agar mere pass captaincy aati bhi toh mai leta nahi (even if they had given me the captaincy, I would not have accepted it.)"
"When your team is going through such a bad season, these kinds of things make it worse. You need to back your players, your captain and if you will change captaincy in middle of the season it doesn’t send a good message."
The 29-year-old instead opined that they collectively failed as a unit this season. He further stressed that things would not have changed drastically had he been named the skipper during the middle of the season. Such kind of moves send a wrong message to the fans and ruins the atmosphere of the dressing room. He concluded by saying that it is imperative to maintain your trust in the skipper and the team management during tough times.
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