If DC had given me the captaincy in mid-season, I would not have accepted it: Axar Patel

The Delhi Capitals (DC) have already been eliminated from playoff contention in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. DC currently sits ninth in the IPL 2023 points table with 10 points in 13 games, with five wins and eight losses. Notably, after the regular skipper, Rishabh Pant got ruled out of the IPL 2023 season, the Australian batter, David Warner, was named captain for the ongoing season. 

Since nothing has gone exactly as expected for Delhi, many fans and analysts feel that Axar Patel should have been a good choice to be named captain midway through the season. However, Patel said that if the management had handed the captaincy role to him in the middle of the tournament, he would have rejected it. Notably, the India all-rounder has been in excellent shape for DC this year. He is currently their second-highest run-scorer with 268 runs in 14 matches and their second-highest wicket-taker with 12 scalps in nine matches this season.

"Mai chaalu series mey kisi ko kuch nahi bolta (I don’t say much during the mid-season). Agar mere pass captaincy aati bhi toh mai leta nahi (even if they had given me the captaincy, I would not have accepted it.)," Patel told The Indian Express.

The 29-year-old went on to say that when a team experiences such an awful season, things like these worsen the situation. He also stated that you should back your teammates and captain, and changing captaincy in the midst of the season sends the wrong message.

"When your team is going through such a bad season, these kinds of things make it worse. You need to back your players, your captain and if you will change captaincy in middle of the season it doesn’t send a good message," Patel further stated.

We failed collectively as a team, and you can’t blame the captain: Patel

Axar Patel went on to add that if he had taken over the captaincy, nothing would have changed. He also stated that DC failed collectively as a team, and thus the captain cannot be blamed. He added that he wasn't ever asked to take over as captain since he wasn't interested in harming the atmosphere in the dressing room.

"Mere captaincy lene se sab kuch change nahi ho jata. Aisa nahi tha ki ek banda kharab kar raha tha. Usme captain kya kar sakta hai (Things could have remained the same even if I was the captain. We failed collectively as a team, and you can’t blame the captain)."

"I never had a chat about captaincy, but if I became a captain, then I would not take responsibility in the middle of a season. I don’t want to ruin the atmosphere of the dressing room," Patel concluded.