Axar Patel

The arrival

Axar Patel arrived through the auction: Kings XI Punjab paid ₹75 lakh, against a base price of ₹20 lakh.

That first season brought 17 matches, 62 runs and 17 wickets at 6.14 an over. The best was still to come.

The peak

The high point with the bat was 2023, for Delhi Capitals: 283 runs at an average of 28.3, striking at 139.4 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 141.9, with 1 fifty, and a highest score of 54.

Measured against the league around it, though, the most destructive season was 2022: 182 runs at a strike rate of 151.7, 18 runs per hundred balls quicker than the IPL as a whole that year.

With the ball, the best season was 2014, for Kings XI Punjab: 17 wickets at 6.14 runs an over, while the league's bowlers went for 7.98, with best figures of 3 for 24. Three seasons brought 15 wickets or more (2014, 2017 and 2021).

Franchise by franchise

2014 to 2018, Kings XI Punjab. Bought at the 2014 auction for ₹75 lakh. 68 matches, 686 runs and 61 wickets.

2019 to 2026, Delhi Capitals. Bought at the 2019 auction for ₹5 cr. 109 matches, 1,403 runs and 78 wickets.

2 spells with two franchises in all. The longest was with Delhi Capitals, 2019 to 2026.

Bat, ball and method

Across the career, Axar Patel has struck at 133.7. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 140.1, so Axar Patel has scored about 6 runs per hundred balls slower than the typical batter of the time, a trade usually made for longer innings. 57% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 146 fours and 100 sixes.

The ball-by-ball record adds the detail. 32.8% of the balls Axar Patel faced were dot balls, a lower share than 82% of the 140 batters who have faced 500 balls or more in the IPL. A six came every 15.6 balls, and a four every 10.7.

With the ball, 139 wickets in 3,585 deliveries, at 7.43 runs an over against a league rate of 8.49 for the same seasons: 1.07 an over cheaper than the typical bowler of the time, the mark of a bowler who kept things tight. There was one four-wicket haul, and the best figures were 4 for 21.

32.6% of the balls Axar Patel bowled were dots, a lower share than 72% of the 150 bowlers with 500 balls or more; a wicket came every 25.8 balls.

The fielding record: 80 catches and 5 run-outs.

At the auction

Axar Patel has gone under the hammer twice. The highest price was ₹5 cr, paid by Delhi Capitals in 2019, more than 5 times the base price. The price climbed with the reputation: ₹75 lakh in 2014, ₹5 cr by 2019.

Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.

Where it stands

On the all-time IPL lists, among 810 players, Axar Patel stands 19th for wickets and 22nd for matches played. The story is still being written: 2026 was another season with Delhi Capitals.