Viral Instagram Stories attributed to Axar Patel turn out to be fake

India made a final change to their World Cup 2023 squad on Thursday, September 28 as injured all-rounder Axar Patel was replaced by veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Patel had suffered a left quadriceps strain during India’s Super Four fixture vs Bangladesh in Asia Cup 2023 and was ruled out of the final of the continental tournament and the subsequent three-match ODI series vs Australia.

There were reports that the 29-year-old would get fit in time for the World Cup, however, the team management announced Ravichandran Ashwin as his replacement on the final day of the squad finalization. Following his snub from the Indian squad, few fake screenshots of Axar Patel’s Instagram story went viral all over social media where he expressed his disappointment on his team India snub.

In one of the screenshots it was written, "Should have taken science instead of Commerce and hired a better PR" while the other one contained a skeleton cutting a heart with scissors. However, the cricketer clarified that the screenshots were fake by retweeting the information from his official X account. 

Hello everyone!

There's a fake screenshot doing the rounds today which is allegedly taken from @akshar2026's Instagram page.

He has NOT posted any such story on his social media account, so the question of deleting it doesn't arise.

Please treat this as an official…

— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) September 29, 2023

Axar patel Stories - Is he forced to pull out of the squad ? #PAKvNZ #IndiaAtAsianGames #KritiSanon #GanpathTeaser #RajkumarHirani #HombaleFilms #PrasanthNeel #KanganaRanaut #NanaPatekar #AxarPatel #SalaarCeaseFire #SalaarOnDec22nd #iWeekDeakin #LeoTrailer pic.twitter.com/zjXffDCUwJ

— Hassan Zia (@ZiaHata) September 29, 2023

Axar has picked 14 wickets in ODIs from 15 innings since 2022 at an average of 35.21 and an economy of 4.90. He has further scored 300 runs from 14 innings in the same time frame at an average of 30 at a strike rate of 106 with two half-centuries to his name.

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Ashwin made a comeback to the ODI side after 21 months

On the other hand, Ashwin recently made a comeback to the ODI side after 21 months in the recent series against Australia and shone with the ball in the second ODI played in Indore. The 37-year-old picked up 3/41 in seven overs as he dismissed David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne and Josh Inglis. He finished as the joint second-highest wicket-taker in the series having picked four wickets in two innings at an average of 22 and an economy of 5.17.

Ashwin has played 115 ODIs in his career so far and picked 155 wickets at an average of 33.20 and an economy of 4.94. The Chennai-born cricketer has immense experience of playing major tournaments as he was also a part of the 2011 and 2015 ODI World Cup as well. He has picked 17 wickets from ten matches played in the mega event at an average of 24.88 and an economy of 4.36.

Meanwhile, India will start their World Cup campaign with a warm-up fixture against England on September 30 in Guwahati followed by another warm-up game against Netherlands on October 03 in Thiruvananthapuram.