Delhi Capitals will be sweating on skipper Axar Patel’s availability for the IPL match against Punjab Kings.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Delhi Capitals (DC) will have to wait on skipper Axar Patel’s recovery from illness ahead of the IPL 2025 encounter against the Punjab Kings, said assistant coach Matthew Mott.
The all-rounder missed the side’s 59-run loss to the Mumbai Indians, ending its hopes of making the top four, and has not fully recovered ahead of Saturday’s contest here.
“He’s (Axar) is not training today. I’m sure he’s motivated to come out and play. But, we’ll probably know a little bit more tonight when we go back and see the medical staff,” Mott said at the pre-match press conference.
The Australian said the players and staff are gutted after failing to qualify for the Playoffs despite winning six of their opening eight encounters.
“We came out of the blocks hard and won a lot of games early. The second half has been very disappointing, a bit patchy and disjointed,” he said.
“Halfway through the tournament, we probably needed to win two more games to assure our spot in the final. We weren’t good enough as a group to do that,” he added.
The Kings, on the other hand, were given a major boost with skipper Shreyas Iyer passed fit to play after recovering from a finger injury, which saw him subbed out ahead of the second innings against the Rajasthan Royals.
“He’s (Shreyas) recovered well. He had a good hit yesterday. He’s a pretty tough character, and it’ll be hard not to get him out there. He’ll go back to his normal position at number three,” PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin said.
Published – May 23, 2025 09:27 pm IST