New Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel has been criticised for bowling part-timer Tristan Stubbs in the 13th over of the innings against Lucknow Super Giants, which went for 28 runs.
What was the match scenario?
LSG got off to a flier at Visakhapatnam, scoring 133-1 in the first 11.3 overs when the second wicket fell. Mitchell Marsh departed for a 36-ball 72, bringing skipper Rishabh Pant to the crease. It also meant two left-handers were batting, with Pant accompanied by Nicholas Pooran.
Pooran was on 42 off 21 balls at that stage, having taken on almost all the bowlers. Five players had bowled till then, with the most economical being Axar Patel. He gave away just 12 runs in his first two overs, having also opened the bowling for his team alongside Mitchell Starc.
However, with two left-handers batting, Axar, also a left-hander, held himself back and handed the ball to off-spinner Stubbs. Before the game, the South African had bowled just 33.5 overs in 122 T20s, completing his full quota of overs just once, back in 2021. The move was seemingly made as the batters would find the ball moving away difficult to hit.
Stubbs, who has picked 11 wickets in the format and has an economy rate of 9.18, started off with a dot ball to Pooran but was dispatched for boundaries in all of his next five deliveries. Pooran smashed him for four successive sixes and then a four, as he conceded 28 runs, which allowed them to cross 200 despite the slow down in the middle overs, led by Rishabh Pant’s six-ball duck.
The decision to postpone his third over received a lot of criticism. Many believed that this move relied too much on match-ups and lacked flexibility in making on-field decisions.
This is not the first time that Axar has been held back with two left-handers on the crease. It is a tactic that India skipper Rohit Sharma followed regularly in T20Is, with a particular instance against South Africa in the 2022 T20 World Cup coming to mind. Axar did not play the game against a team with several left-handed batters, with Deepak Hooda replacing him in the XI. Hooda, a part-time off-spinner, was expected to work better against the left-handers, which is why Axar was dropped.
Delhi ended up barely winning the clash by one wicket in the last over. Stubbs’ over could have cost them heavily.
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