On Friday (March 14), Delhi Capitals named all-rounder Axar Patel as their captain for IPL 2025. Here's what his captaincy record is so far.
Now entering his seventh season with the Capitals, Axar was one of four players DC retained for this season along with Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel. Before the announcement, there had been speculation that one of KL Rahul or Faf du Plessis, both signed in the player auction, could take over from Rishabh Pant.
Has Axar Patel captained in the IPL before?
Yes, on one occasion. He was Delhi's vice-captain last season, and stepped in to lead the side in a solitary game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru when Pant was suspended. DC ended up losing by 47 runs, and Axar himself took 0-24 and scored 57 off 39 balls.
What about domestic cricket?
Axar captained Gujarat's U19 team 13 times between October 2012 and January 2013, including in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy and Cooch Behar Trophy. In the 2012-13 BCCI Inter Zonal tournament, he led West Zone U19s to four wins out of four, and the title – contributing with 98 runs and seven wickets in the 50-over competition.
His first taste of captaincy at the senior level came in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in December 2015. By that time, Axar had completed two IPL seasons with Punjab Kings, and represented India in both white-ball formats. He took 2-33 in 10 overs for Gujarat against Karnataka, but ended up on the losing side.
Read more: Axar Patel is unlike any cricketer India have ever produced
Since then, most of Axar's captaincy experience has been in the T20 format. He captained two Ranji Trophy matches in 2016-17, before leading Gujarat in the 2017-18 and 2020-21 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. In both seasons, they exited at the group stage.
He also took their reins in the most recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, in which Gujarat won six out of their seven group stage matches but failed to make it to the knockouts as Baroda and Saurashtra also put up identical records, but with better net run rates. Seven of the 10 teams that advanced had fewer points than them.
Axar Patel: Captaincy record in professional cricket
| Format | Matches | Won | Lost | Drawn | Tied | N/R |
| First-class | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| List A | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| T20 | 17 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 24 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
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