Axar Patel: How captaincy unlocked a never-seen-before side in the all-rounder

It worked handsomely - starting Test career with a bang, while bagging the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup and 2025 Champions Trophy winners medals. But it was only when he became India's vice-captain in T20Is (including in 2026 Men's T20 World Cup win) and Delhi Capitals (DC) handed him the leadership armband ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 that Axar realised there was an entirely different side which he never knew - of bringing the best out of players and thinking about taking the team to victories.

"I think, and I feel that as a player, you do what the team requires of you, and that this is your role in cricket, and that is your role in bowling. Due to that, I wouldn't think much about my surroundings and just do my batting and bowling. But when you are in a leadership group, apart from yourself, you start thinking about how you can get the best out of this person and how this person can get me the cup.

"I think that side would get lost when I used to go to the ground. But, when I came to the leadership group, I started thinking about how to use this person and who should be fielding where - I think that side has come out for me through the leadership role," said Axar, while replying to a question from IANS in the pre-season press conference on Monday.

That admission is a striking one, especially considering Axar's jovial personality and head coach Hemang Badani even calling him 'one of the coolest players he has ever worked with.' "I have become more involved in deciding how to use this person and when to get him to bowl in a game. So, that side has come out for me.

"At the same time, as a leader, I put myself in the front. If there is any difficult situation, I do this work first so that it becomes easy for the rest. I think that in the last 10-12 months, since I came to the leadership group, I have started doing that," added Axar.

That instinct will now be the cornerstone of his captaincy identity heading into IPL 2026, where Delhi Capitals arrive bolstered by the arrivals of David Miller, Ben Duckett, and Pathum Nissanka to complete a squad Axar believes is the most complete the franchise has assembled.

The obvious question for any Indian player stepping into a T20 franchise leadership role is what they carry across from a national setup widely regarded as the gold standard of modern cricket culture. Axar's answer was thoughtful - willing to bring in India's flexibility and adaptive playing culture into the DC set-up.

"I think it's a very different culture. Franchise cricket and Indian cricket are totally different because in franchise cricket, everyone comes from different countries and plays. In the Indian team, everyone knows that we have to play like this. It becomes very hard here.

"But as a captain, if I have to bring one thing, we talk about intent, and we will play like this. But I think the winning mentality of the Indian team is that they are flexible enough. In any situation, in any particular role, they adapt quickly.

"I think in franchise cricket also, if I am the captain and I bring this into this team, we can't play the same type of cricket. There are different venues and different pitches. We have to adapt. We will be flexible enough to set our game according to the conditions we get," he said.

Further explaining about it, Axar stated, "In the Indian team, the role is fixed -- like opener is this or that. In a franchise, the one who plays for his team, for his country, he has to play in the middle-order, and that role also gets adjusted, and with that, everything has to be adjusted. In the Indian team, everything is set. If possible, I would like to bring that - flexible enough and ready for any role and situation to play different types of cricket."

If that flexibility is what Axar wants DC's identity to be, it equally defines his decision-making -- most visibly in how he navigates the increasingly data-heavy demands of T20 leadership - of simply refusing to be enslaved by numbers. "This is a complicated question. I am not saying that I do completely look at the data or match-ups. It depends on the situation as well - what is the situation, wicket, and which ground are we playing on, and who is the batter?

"It depends on the batter as well -- suppose if there are two or three batters like Nicholas Pooran, then how many finishers and batsmen are there like him in the world? Accordingly, I look at everything and assess. It is not that I do not look at the match-ups, nor do I even look at the data. I follow everything, but it depends on you - like you have everything, and it depends on when you want to use that weapon.

"For example, if you want to cut vegetables, you will not use a sword. It is very much the same in cricket -- when you are standing on the ground, and you have to make a decision, what do you feel at that time? Obviously, it also depends on my instincts. If I feel that this will happen, then I think this player will do it for me, and so it is a mix-up."

In his second year as captain, Axar is equally clear that the culture he has built will not be dismantled in pursuit of novelty. "As a captain, I am doing this in my second year. There will not be any drastic change. It will remain the same. The same culture is created in the team as well. We have to play our game calmly. At the same time, we have to play with an aggressive and fearless approach."

Delhi Capitals have never won an IPL title, and in 2025, they missed the playoffs narrowly in a season that promised more. It is the franchise's most persistent wound and one that Axar, deliberately and firmly, refuses to reopen in the dressing room. "Basically, as a skipper, I never raise that point. I think it is not discussed in the team that we lost so close.

"Yes, obviously, it is a matter of one or two games. If we had won one or two matches, it would have been fine. When the season ends, we think about what we could have done and what we could not have done. But as a team, I think we don't talk about it. I don't even want to bring it up because everyone knows it.

"Obviously, when people see it on social media, they also talk about it. They say, we didn't qualify, we are not winning. Again, if the senior guys and the coach talk about it, obviously, they will have the same negativity. We don't talk about it, but in the back of the mind, everyone knows what is going on. So we try to be as positive as possible. We talk more about how we want to play and what we want to work on. We don't talk about what we could have done."

Axar arrived in the DC fold after his two stunning catches in India's 2026 T20 World Cup semifinal win over England - a sensational running catch seeing the back of Harry Brook and relaying the catch to Shivam Dube to dismiss Will Jacks. These are memories that send a player into cricketing folklore, though Axar admitted its full magnitude only registered once the World Cup was over.

"I was not active on social media at that time. But it was in my thoughts, and when I was watching reels later, after friends used to send it to me, at that time, you don't realise what happened, as I used to follow my process. I didn't realise it then, but when I saw it in videos later, I realised it was tough, and I caught it.

"Obviously, in the first catch, it is tough to run backwards. You have to cover that distance. In that match, I had to catch like this in that situation, and I feel grateful and proud that I did it. But when you practice, when you work hard, when you go to the ground, you get the result, and I am very grateful for that."

When DC open their IPL 2026 campaign on April 1 against Lucknow Super Giants, Axar will step on the field as a captain who finally believes this is the year where he can show his enhanced leadership skills to lead the team to championship glory.

"For Delhi Capitals, I am very excited. One thing that makes me excited is that the mistakes we made in the last season and the opening and fast-bowling issues that we had, we got the proper team that we needed in the auction.

"I am very excited that with a full-fledged squad, everyone fights for the title. I am very excited that we are going to start this season and the type of cricket we want to play. This new team is very excited, and that makes me more excited.

"The people around my players and me are very excited to do well, and seeing all that makes me more excited. As a captain, you want your players to give 100 percent for the team, and you want them to give that, which makes me more excited."

- IANS