Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel walked off injured during the DC vs KKR IPL 2025 match at the Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi on Tuesday. The incident happened in the first innings while KKR was batting after Axar won the toss and opted to bowl first.
Each of KKR’s top four batters made starts, crossing the 25-run mark, but only Angkrish Raghuvanshi could capitalise it to some extent, making 44 off 32 balls before he was dismissed in the 17th over.
Axar’s injury came shortly after Raghuvanshi and Rinku Singh were dismissed in successive overs. Vipraj Nigam had Rinku caught in the deep by Mitchell Starc and Rovman Powell came in to join Andre Russell in the middle. Off the first ball he faced, Powell knocked the ball to mid-wicket where Axar Patel dove to stop the ball.
But the angle at which Axar dove was awkward and he ended up hurting his left hand, the bowling hand. He was seen bending low and clutching his hand and fingers and was evidently hurt.
The physio walked out to inspect the injury, but Axar wasted no time to take the walk to the dugout to inspect the injury further. With almost 18 overs done in the innings, Axar’s role was minimal having already completed his four-over spell. Faf du Plessis took on the reins of the DC side for the rest of the innings.
Axar had commented on not playing an active role with the ball last week, citing a minor niggle. “I have a slight injury which is why I haven’t been bowling much so far and today I felt in good rhythm and bowled up front. I was also looking at the match-ups (whenever I made a bowling change) and that is how I rotated my bowlers and all of them responded very well,” Axar said after the LSG game.
However, he appeared to be ready since the RCB game, playing a crucial role with the ball in that game and here again today.
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Axar had made an impactful performance with the ball, dismissing Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer in his four-over spell that went for just 27 runs. The left-arm spinner, who had made an important contribution with the ball in the last game vs RCB after taking just one wicket in the entire season in over 200 balls, was among the wickets again today.
He sent back a well-set Ajinkya Rahane, trapping him in front for 26 before Venkatesh Iyer mistimed a loft off him into the night sky with Vipraj Nigam holding onto the catch.
Despite a decent bowling effort from the spinners including Axar, KKR made over 200 batting first to set Delhi a stiff target.
It remains to be seen how hurt his left hand is. Axar Patel was spotted with a tape around his thumb and fingers during the final over of the KKR innings, sitting in the dugout next to Kevin Pietersen. But later in the innings break, he was seen swinging his bat a few times, so it is assumed that he would come out to bat, but it remains to be seen if he will bat in the top 5 like he has usually done in this season. But he didn’t seem too comfortable while swinging the bat, so it remains to be seen if DC will risk him unless absolutely necessary.
Axar has 189 runs in 8 innings in IPL 2025, batting in the top 5 in seven of those 8 knocks. He has accumulated 189 runs at an average of 27 and a strike-rate of 156.2 in the IPL season so far. Axar has been particularly brutal on the spinners this season and has mostly been used in the middle overs to take on the spin matchups.
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