 (2).png)
13 hours ago
1
ARTICLE AD BOX
Three captains could be at risk of losing their jobs amid their respective teams' poor run of form, news agency PTI has reported. The report states that Delhi Capitals' Axar Patel, Kolkata Knight Riders' Ajinkya Rahane and Lucknow Super Giants' Rishabh Pant are among the captains who are at risk.
Out of the three, only the Rishabh Pant-led Lucknow Super Giants have been officially eliminated from IPL 2026. LSG are in 10th place with six points from 11 matches.
Delhi Capitals are in seventh place with 10 points from 12 matches, whereas Kolkata Knight Riders are in eighth place with nine points from 11 matches.
Axar Patel's captaincy in danger
Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel has scored just 100 runs from nine innings at a strike-rate of 112.35. This includes just one half-century. His bowling, too, has been mediocre, taking just 10 wickets from 12 matches at an economy rate of 8.08.
While his economy rate doesn't seem too bad when compared to Kuldeep Yadav (10.66), Axar has often under-utilised himself with the ball. Delhi Capitals' shared ownership is another concern for Axar Patel.
DC are being jointly run by Parth Jindal and JSW, and the GMR Group. Currently, GMR Group is in charge of cricketing operations of DC, but this will switch back to JSW ahead of IPL 2027.
“With Axar completely failing to prove his leadership worth and mostly being dependant on Hemang Badani and Venugopal Rao for decision making, it will be a miracle if he retains captaincy next year. The entire coaching staff is also unlikely to be retained," an IPL source was quoted as saying by PTI on condition of anonymity.
Axar Patel and the DC management have come under scrutiny for having taken multiple questionable tactical calls. DC haven't backed an attacking batter like Abishek Porel enough, and all-rounder Madhav Tiwari hasn't been used regularly. Youngster Sahil Parakk, with not much IPL experience, has been thrown into pressure situations.
Rishabh Pant under pressure?
Rishabh Pant's struggles in the IPL both as LSG captain and as a batter seem to persist. Pant has batted at several batting positions, but pressure has always got the better of him. LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka is someone who is known to have a strict approach when it comes to the team's performance, and he is unlikely to be pleased with the performance that Rishabh Pant and his LSG side have put up in IPL 2026.
View full Image
Pant has managed to score just 251 runs from 11 innings in IPL 2026 at a strike rate of 138. Some of the questionable decisions that Pant has made include asking Arshin Kulkarni to open.
He scored a 24-ball 17 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). It remains to be seen if that decision was made by Pant or head coach Justin Langer and the support staff.
Another corner rose in the form of Himmat Singh, who has been given repeated opportunities despite having just a strike rate of just 133.33. Similarly, Ayush Badoni has been consistently used in LSG's top half of the batting order despite his failure to play aggressively
Ajinkya Rahane's struggles
When Ajinkya Rahane was named Kolkata Knight Riders captain ahead of IPL 2025, the team management hardly had any other leadership.
Rahane also had a close contact with Abhishek Nayar, who is currently the head coach of KKR. However, both Rahane and Nayar had to deal with the fact that youngster Angkrish Raghuvanshi couldn't match up to the aggressiveness that is needed in the shortest format.
View full Image
In IPL 2026, Raghuvanshi has scored 340 runs from 11 matches, and even though he has scored four fifties, the youngster only has a strike rate of 139.34. Rahane, on the other hand, has scored just 237 runs at a strike rate of 133.
Some critics have suggested that Rahane and Raghuvanshi shouldn't have been part of the same playing XI, with former India cricketer Aakash Chopra even believing that this could prevent KKR from "realising the full potential of their batting power".
English (US) ·