After playing a key role in India’s Champions Trophy win in Dubai – when India won by four wickets over New Zealand on March 9 – star India all-rounder Axar Patel fell into Ahmedabad in the early hours of Tuesday.
Being one of the four spinners India deployed since their group stage match against the Kiwis, Axar bowled some saving spells and created partnerships with top and middle order batters.
Axar cordoned off by security men from the airport waving and acknowledging fans awaiting his arrival
On Monday, Axar was also named the 12th player in ICC’s team of the tournament in the Champions Trophy. He contributed five wickets with the ball and 109 runs – including 29 in the final – with the bat.
In a few days, Axar is expected to join the Delhi Capitals camp, as IPL 2025 will kick off in 11 days.
Axar and India wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul are the two contenders for Delhi’s leadership in IPL 2025, with the former having his nose slightly ahead, as he seems better placed to take up the captaincy.
Axar, Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, South Africa’s Tristan Stubbs, Aussies Jake Fraser McGurk, and Mitchell Starc will be at Vishakhapatnam on March 17 and 18.
Into his seventh season with Delhi now, Axar, who has played 150 IPL matches, scoring 1653 runs at a strike rate of 130.88 and taking 123 wickets at an economy rate of 7.28, looks the frontrunner to lead the side than Rahul, who will be donning the Delhi blues for the first time.
Neither has Axar’s leadership at the IPL level been proven, while Rahul has been leading for a few years. According to a report in PTI, the team bigwigs would be announcing the names of their new skipper in a couple of days because they had waited for the Champions Trophy to end.
Delhi will have a brief training and simulation camp in the city and then depart to Vishakhapatnam for their first two matches.
