Can Axar Patel shed ‘forever the bridesmaid’ tag in IPL 2026?
If Delhi Capitals are to end their IPL title drought, Axar Patel will have to step up with the bat, ball and as a captain. Interestingly, Axar has never crossed the 300-run mark in the IPL in the 162 games he has played over twelve years. The all-rounder is yet to better his debut season with the ball, where he picked up 17 wickets for Kings XI Punjab, now Punjab Kings.
NEW DELHI: In an era of fleeting flamboyance in cricket, Axar Patel is an outlier. The all-rounder played a pivotal role in India winning three ICC titles -- two T20 World Cups and a Champions Trophy -- in a span of 21 months. He has won games with both bat and ball, and his fielding has been equally memorable.
Who can forget his catch to dismiss Mitchell Marsh with a perfectly timed leap at deep square leg in Gros Islet in 2024, or the effort at a packed Wankhede where he ran back from point to grab a skier from England captain Harry Brook during the thrilling T20 World Cup semi-final. Then there was the Will Jacks catch in the same match. While the scorecard will credit Shivam Dube, it was Axar’s stunning effort that made all the difference.
He plucked the ball on the run, lost balance without losing awareness of the boundary cushions, and tossed it towards a converging Dube to complete the dismissal. The 32-year-old has always been hailed as a team man to the very end. Over the years, he has been labelled India’s “crisis man”, “the underrated one”, Ravindra Jadeja’s “understudy”, and even tagged as “forever the bridesmaid”.
The 2026 edition of the Indian Premier League presents him with a chance to shed those tags. Leading the Delhi Capitals for a second consecutive season, Axar has an opportunity to claim a crowning moment in his career. On Monday, at the Delhi Capitals pre-season press conference, Axar deservedly received all the plaudits, but he looked like a man on a mission.
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