3 reasons why Axar Patel should bat up the order for the Delhi Capitals

On Tuesday, April 11, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated the Delhi Capitals (DC) by six wickets following an exciting last-ball result. This was the five-time winners' first victory in the current IPL season.

MI elected to bowl first after winning the toss. After 12.3 overs, the hosts were in trouble at 98/5, but Axar Patel's brilliant half-century (54 runs off 25 balls) helped them turn things around.

David Warner also scored a half-century (51 runs off 47 balls), but struggled to score quickly. DC fell from 165/5 after 18 overs to 172 all-out in 19.4 overs due to a late collapse.

After 15.4 overs, MI were in a strong position and cruising at 139/1 in their chase. However, DC came back into the match after the quick dismissals of Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, and Rohit Sharma. Through their quick-fire cameos, Cameron Green and Tim David kept them in touch and led MI to victory off the final ball.

DC will regret the dropped catch and failed run-out attempts in the last over. While Mukesh Kumar dropped the catch, Anrich Nortje and skipper David Warner both failed to take advantage of the run-out opportunities.

Having lost four out of four games, DC will have to make some radical changes in their team to come back in the competition. One of the few changes being suggested by critics is to push Axar Patel up the batting order.

On that note, let us discuss three reasons why Axar Patel should move up the batting order.

#1 Axar Patel is in great form

Axar Patel has been in great form with the bat in T20Is this year. In the three matches that he has played in 2023, he has scores of 31* runs in 20 balls, 65 runs in 31 balls and 21* runs in 9 balls. He carried his form into the Border-Gavaskar Test series too, scoring three crucial fifties on difficult pitches in just six innings. Even yesterday, he scored a magnificent, quick-fire fifty on a difficult pitch in Delhi. He was the only batter who looked set from the Delhi Capitals and played at a strike-rate of 216. Thus, Axar Patel coming at No.7 is too late for a player with his capabilities, and most importantly, his form.

#2 He is a left-handed batter

With the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Manish Pandey, Yash Dhull, Rovman Powell and Lalit Yadav in the top and middle-order, promoting Axar Patel up the batting-order will provide a left-handed batter in the middle overs. A left-and-right hand batting partnership in the middle overs will help DC tackle the spinners better in the middle-overs.

#3 Good player of spin

Axar Patel is an excellent player of spin. Having played most of his cricket in India, he has the ability to attack spinners in the middle-overs. With middle-order players like Manish Pandey and Rovman Powell struggling against spin in the middle-overs, Patel can take the attack to the opposition.

Can you think any other reason why Axar Patel should come up the batting order? Let us know in the comments section below.