Axar Patel has been in good form in the past few months. As majority of Delhi Capitals (DC) batters have failed to live up to expectations, Patel has rescued his side from batting collapses. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he did again with a run-a-ball 34. The southpaw helped SRH recover from 62/5 as they posted a fighting total of 144/9. Patel followed it up with two crucial wickets with the ball as well and was adjudged ‘Player of the match’. Impressed by Patel’s all-round performance, Sunil Gavaskar wants DC to name him as captain of the side.
"I believe Axar Patel should be appointed the captain of Delhi Capitals. He is an honest player. He's in a good rhythm. The Indian team can benefit from him being named the captain of the franchise and performing well. All these things should be done in a long run," Gavaskar told Star Sports Cricket Live.
Patel was appointed as vice-captain of the side in the absence of Rishabh Pant who is yet to recover from injuries he sustained after getting into a horrific car accident. The southpaw has scored 182 runs from seven matches at an average of 30.33 including one half-century. He had a strike rate of 135.82. With the ball, he has taken just six wickets. However, he has an impressive economy rate of 7.05 runs per over.
“2/21 since I scored 34 in 34 so the two wickets were more important. I ordered for coffee and I left the glass like that, when three wickets fell in one over. (Manish) Pandey and I discussed we need to take it as deep as possible. (On the surface) It was slow, the ball was coming off slowly,” Patel said in the post-match presentation.
“I felt that me and Kuldeep can tie up the batters on this surface, so it was enjoyable. I keep getting wickets in the form of knocking over batters but getting a wicket off the slower one (Mayank Agarwal's wicket) was more enjoyable,” he added.
With a narrow win over SRH, DC have four points from seven games. They are at the bottom of the points table with five losses and an inferior net run rate (NRR). DC will now host SRH in their next clash on April 29.
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