Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar believes that star India all-rounder Axar Patel should be appointed captain of Delhi Capitals in IPL in the long run, saying that it will also benefit the Indian cricket team.
Axar scored 34 and later took 2 wickets for 21 as Delhi Capitals registered their second win of IPL 2023, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven runs on Monday night.
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His all-round efforts earned him the first Player of the Match award of the season and legendary Gavaskar has backed the Gujarat cricketer to lead Delhi Capitals.
“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 the long run,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports Cricket Live.
During the eighth over of Delhi’s innings — Washington Sundar dismissed David Warner, Sarfaraz Khan and Aman Hakim Khan as the Capitals went from a moderately stable position of 57/2 to 62/5. Axar then forged a 69-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Manish Pandey and helped the visitors post 144, which turned out as the winning total in the end.
“I didn’t even realise what’s going on. I had just ordered coffee and I had to leave that cup of coffee as it was because I found out we had lost three wickets in one over, so I had to run and go straight in to bat,” the all-rounder said at the post-match presentation.
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“Once I went in to bat then I had a chance to think about what was going on. [Manish] Pandey and I were there and Pandey said that the deeper we could take it the better it is because if we have some runs we can put up a fight,” he added.
With the ball, Axar Patel with his left-arm spin dismissed both top-scorer Mayank Agarwal as well as captain Aiden Markram during SRH’s innings.
“Obviously [the pitch] was a little slow. The ball was stopping. Kuldeep [Yadav] and I have bowled in partnerships even on the Delhi wickets, so when I batted I thought that Kuldeep and I can trap the batters. So the more runs I could score the better for us. So that was the plan and the way Kuldeep and I bowled, we had fun. I keep bowling batters but getting him [Markram] with the slower ball, that I enjoyed more,” he said.
The Delhi Capitals will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their next match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, here on Saturday.
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