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India all-rounder Axar Patel took up captaincy duties at Delhi Capitals (DC) after Rishabh Pant’s departure. Patel did fairly well in his maiden season as designated captain as DC started with a bang but failed to make it to the playoffs by a whisker. Months after IPL 2025, Axar opened up on people not considering him captaincy material because he is not a fluent speaker of the English language. The spin-bowling all-rounder said that the captain's job is to get the best out of players, not based on whether he could speak English properly.
“People start saying ‘oh he is not a captaincy material, he doesn’t speak English. How will he talk? Yeh hai, voh hai’. Arre! Captain’s work is not to just talk. Captain’s work is to know the player and see how to get the best out of him. What’s his strength, what’s his weakness. Captain knows that I have this player and what I need to do to get work out of him (“kaisey kaam nikalwaana hai”). And in game situations, who to give the ball now,” Patel told The Indian Express.
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“But yeah if we say ‘personality’ chahiye, acha English bolna chahiye – that’s a perception made by the public based on their own thinking. I captained Delhi Capitals this year and got a lot of praise. I think if more of this happens, more will change in the coming time. It’s important that people have to change their personal thinking. Stop thinking ‘oh his personality is good, he can speak English – so he is captain material’. One thing about captaincy is there should be no language barrier. It’s all about what you see and what the media is showing. How active you are on social media. How you talk. People judge you on all that. Everyone likes to give opinions these days. He is capable, he is not capable, take him, don’t take him, make him captain etc.”
Patel also said that people who have played cricket know that what they do on the field matters, nothing else.
“The people in cricket know what’s the value of a player. At the end of day that’s what matters – what the people around you think. So yeah, just do your job,” he further added.
Patel to warm the bench or take the field?
Patel is likely to be be seen in action in the two-Test series against South Africa, starting on November 14 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He hasn’t played a Test since February 2024.
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