Reasons Why Axar Patel Should Leave DC Captaincy: Just like the last season, in this IPL 2026, Delhi Capitals started off strong. They won their first two games and looked set to make the playoffs.
However, after only a few more matches, they are now out of the tournament. The two biggest reasons for this are Patels’ bad performance as a batsman and bowler while making a lot of questionable decisions as captain. Based on this, he should give up his captaincy at the end of the season.
5 Reasons Why Axar Patel Should Leave DC Captaincy
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1. Poor Captaincy Record
Axar Patel’s record as captain of the Delhi Capitals in the IPL has been extremely poor. Across two seasons, he has captained the team in a total of 23 matches of these, they have managed to win only 9 while suffering 12 defeats. Additionally, one match ended in a tie, and another was abandoned.
His captaincy record is even worse this season. Out of the 11 matches Delhi has played, they have secured only 4 victories while facing defeat in 7.
2. Failure with the Bat
Axar’s batting has been awful so far in this T20 season (44 runs in 8 innings), batting avg of 5.50, and batting strike rate of 74.58 (both are considered to be very poor by T20 cricket standards).
He is officially the captain of the team and is the designated finisher as well, but he has not contributed any significant innings at all for the team in crucial moments.
For instance, when the team played against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Sep 28, 2023, Axar scored only 11 runs in 22 balls with one of the slowest innings of all-time (as recorded in the IPL).
3. Poor Bowling Performance
Axar Patel has always been viewed as an all-rounder capable of turning the tide of a match with both bat and ball. However, his performance with the ball has also been merely average this season.
He has managed to claim only 10 wickets across 11 innings. His best performance was a spell of 2/18 against Bengaluru.
Although he had an economy rate of 8.33, he was inconsistent with the number wickets he took each match. His bowling average was 30.56 and his strike rate was 22.00. The fact that he did not take any wickets during many middle over of multiple games directly cost Delhi many games.
The most major concerns that Delhi has had this season is the problems that Axar Patel has been having with both the bat and ball.
He has also been noticeably stressed from the pressure of playing captain. He played extremely well up until he became captain but the pressure of being captain has now taken its toll on him as well.
4. Consistently Poor Performance with Bat and Ball While Captaining
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His batting numbers have also steadily dropped since becoming the captain, with a total of only 307 runs and an average of 14 runs over 23 matches in the last two years, without a single run of 50 or over.
His bowling stats have declined as well, he has taken a total of only 15 wickets from 23 matches at an economy rate of 8.32. He is not able to take wickets or score runs from either position at this time.
5. Limited Captaincy Experience in Professional Cricket
Even though Axar Patel had no prior experience as a captain; he was able to lead the team in place of KL Rahul. As a captain of a team in an international cricket match for the first time and having only been entrusted with that role on a sporadic basis in domestic cricket.
In domestic cricket, he captained Gujarat in two First-Class matches, both of which ended in a draw. In the T20 format, he led the team in 16 matches, securing 10 victories while suffering 6 defeats. In List A cricket, he won 2 out of 5 matches and lost 3.
All things considered, Axar does not have much experience as a captain and this has been apparent in the choices he has made during play. Consequently, the team has lost multiple key matches.
Axar Patel’s Captaincy Record for Gujarat
First-Class: 2 Matches – 2 Draws
T20s: 16 Matches – 10 Wins, 6 Losses
List A: 5 Matches – 2 Wins, 3 Losses
Axar Patel’s IPL Captaincy Record
Matches: 24
Wins: 9
Losses: 13
Abandoned: 1
Ties: 1
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