IPL 2023: “Axar Patel Was Not Getting To Bat, You Wonder Who Was Taking The Decisions" - Aakash Chopra Slams Delhi Capitals Management

Last Update on: June 3rd, 2023 at 04:58 pm

Delhi Capitals (DC) had a forgettable IPL 2023 as the David Warner-led side finished in the 9th position on the points table with 5 wins from 14 matches. Axar Patel was fighting the lone battle throughout the tournament. Axar Patel took 11 wickets from 14 matches and scored 283 runs from 14 matches with a strike rate of 139.41.

Skipper David Warner didn’t get ample support from the rising batter Prithvi Shaw and the middle order also couldn’t perform according to their credentials which put immense pressure on the DC skipper. It won’t be wrong to say that there was a lack of camaraderie amongst the batters.

The absence of Rishabh Pant (*injured) hurt the team a lot as his attacking tactics would have been priceless in the middle overs phase against spinners as Pant uses his feet quite brilliantly. David Warner’s captaincy too was a bit questionable.

Also Read: IPL 2023: “There Was The Stubborn, Almost Defiant Refusal” – Sunil Gavaskar Lashes Out At Delhi Capitals For Not Promoting Axar Patel Up The Order

DC’s head coach & skipper David Warner didn’t give ample chances to the batters as there was a lot of chopping & changing being done which didn’t help the team.

You wonder who was taking the decisions- Aakash Chopra on Axar Patel’s batting position

Aakash Chopra, speaking on his show ‘AakashVaani’, said that he was quite puzzled with the way DC management used the flamboyant all-rounder Axar Patel.

Aakash Chopra was surprised that DC had such a brilliant coaching staff in Ricky Ponting, Sourav Ganguly, Shane Watson, James Hopes, Ajit Agarkar, and Pravin Amre and still they weren’t able to handle Axar.

“The first player who comes to my mind, although he still performed well, his name used to be there in the most valuable players’ list. Imagine if this player had been in MS Dhoni’s team, he might have been this tournament’s best player, his name is Axar Patel. He was not getting to bat,” said Aakash Chopra

“You wonder who was taking the decisions. You have David Warner as the captain of your team, and outside you had Ricky Ponting, Sourav Ganguly, Shane Watson, James Hopes, Ajit Agarkar and Pravin Amre. You couldn’t figure out how to get the best out of this player despite having such a large think-tank,” he added.

Aakash Chopra further slammed the Punjab Kings (PBKS) management for not handling the young left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh properly.

“The second player who comes to my mind is Arshdeep Singh. He is a player who has played a World Cup. When the Mumbai match happened, where he picked up four wickets in the end, he was No. 1 in the Purple Cap list, which means for half the season he was right up there. So no one can say he wasn’t bowling well,” Aakash Chopra said.

“After that, you didn’t get him to bowl with the new ball at all. If you gave the 5th or 6th over to Arshdeep Singh, it means you halved his stature. Then he had overs left at the death, but you were getting Harpreet Brar to bowl. He could have potentially taken you to the playoffs but you didn’t utilize him at all.”

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