Following the six-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians (MI) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper David Warner said that there are a lot of positives in last three matches despite losses and added that all-rounder Axar Patel should be batting in top four.
In the post-match conference Warner said, “You look at the last three IPL games we have witnessed, they have been amazing. Wrong end of it today, but the guys were fantastic. Rohit played a fantastic knock at the top of the order. Nortje is world-class and that is what we expect from him, Mustafiz too. Timmy David was on the wrong side of it, so I tried to keep it at stump height. I think from the last three games, we have some positives but we should not lose wickets in clumps. Axar should bat in the top four the way he is striking the ball. From the last three games we have played, there are a lot of positives.”
Axar’s batting has been an asset for Team India and DC this year. In 12 international matches this year, Axar has managed 444 runs in 13 innings at an average of 63.82 and a strike rate of 74.12. He has scored four half-centuries, with the best score of 84. He was India’s most consistent batter in this year’s Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at home, scoring 264 runs in five innings at an average of 88.00 with three fifties. Besides this, he has also played some useful cameos in ODIs and T20Is this year.