Aaron Finch could make neither head nor tail of Delhi Capitals’ decision to bowl just four overs between captain Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on Tuesday. Abhishek Sharma went berserk, pummelling an unbeaten 135, but while Nitish Rana, a part-time spinner, bowled his full quota of overs, Axar and Kuldeep Yadav combined to bowl the same number. That two of India’s leading spinners were not utilised to their potential left Finch, and pretty sure everyone else, scratching their heads.
“We’ve been sitting there scratching our heads, haven’t we? Your two Indian premier spin bowlers, Axar Patel, the skipper [2-0-23-1], Kuldeep Yadav [2-0-30-0], they bowled four overs between them. A part-time offspinner in Nitish Rana has wheeled out four overs. To me, that makes no sense,” Finch said while speaking on ESPNCricinfo.
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“It’s the responsibility of your captain, your senior player, your retained player, your best bowler, Indian bowler, he’s one of your core bowlers in the Indian cricket team. That’s no small bit. He’s a double World Cup winner. So the fact that he doesn’t trust himself to execute under pressure and to defend himself against any left-handers – as soon as a left-hander walks to the crease, not for me today, thanks. To me, that says more about his attitude towards it than anything else.”
Axar’s got a defensive mindset
Delhi Capitals’ campaign isn’t exactly flourishing. With three wins from six matches, DC are placed fifth on the IPL 2026 points table. It makes for a funny reading because they had the opportunity to win at least two of those. David Miller fumbled against Gujarat Titans, and just last evening, KL Rahul missed a chance to run Abhishek out. Besides these game-changing moments, Finch feels the problem lies in Axar, blaming the captain of an outdated and stale approach.
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“He’s got a great defensive mindset with the ball in hand too. He’s not somebody that you know, if he’s under pressure, he’ll float one up in the slot. He defends himself. He changes angles. He uses his range, his height to his advantage as well. So even when you’re thinking defensive, that’s attacking against Abhishek Sharma when he’s in a mood like that. You bowl a couple of decent balls and you know that something will happen,” added Finch.
“I’m looking at those comments saying, well hang on, boss, you had the chance as well but you’re not willing to stand up at the moment either,” Finch said. “So I’m no issue with mis-execution. A bowler can mis-execute for a game, for a couple of games. If their planning and their preparation and their thought process is right, I’ve no issues whatsoever with that. Because inevitably you can’t bowl 24 perfect balls. You can’t get your decision-making right all the time.”