Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar believes Axar Patel should bat up the order and not at number seven for Delhi Capitals in the ongoing Tata Indian Premier League 2023. Patel has been in great form with the bat in the recent past and with DC’s batting struggling to get going, Gavaskar feels the left-hander should be promoted in the batting order.

The southpaw scored a run-a-ball 34 against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Monday and helped his team post a competitive total of 144 runs on the board.

In fact, DC was left tottering at 62-5 when Patel joined forces with Manish Pandey. The pair added 69 runs for the sixth wicket to help their team get close to the 150-run mark.

Axar has scored 182 runs in seven matches of IPL 2023 at an average of 30.33 and a strike rate of 135.82 and he is Delhi Capitals’ second-highest run-getter of the season after skipper David Warner.

Furthermore, Patel returned with figures of 2-21 in his quota of four overs against SRH to help his team win by seven runs.

“Changes sometimes work, sometimes they don’t work. There has been a lot of shuffling in the batting order. I would have wanted to see Axar Patel up the order for the kind of batting form he has been, he should have been up there. Aman Hakim Khan played the most ridiculous shot in the IPL 2023. Axar Patel has clearly now made the claim to bat up the order not at 7,” Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports.

Axar Patel was awarded Player of the Match for his all-round performance with both bat and ball. With DC’s middle order struggling to deliver for the franchise, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to promote in-form Axar Patel in the order.

The Capitals will once again take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Saturday.