Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals announced Australian batter David Warner as their new captain for the 2023 season of the cash-rich league in the absence of Rishabh Pant, who is out of the entire season due to multiple injuries that he suffered during an unfortunate road accident last year. In Pant’s absence, Warner, who was signed by the side last year during the mega auction, was expected to lead the side, and the decision to make him the new captain didn’t surprise many, but the appointment of DC’s new vice captain surely came as a shock for many out there because Mumbai Ranji’s former captain Prithvi Shaw was ignored, and in his place, a 29-year-old Indian all-rounder was selected for the role of Warner’s deputy.
Shaw was among the probable candidates to replace Pant as skipper because of his good record as a captain in domestic and age-group cricket. He helped the India U-19 team win the World Cup in 2019 and then, as a captain of Mumbai, led them to the Vijay Hazare title in the 2020–21 season. He was also the captain of the Mumbai Ranji team that reached the Ranji Trophy final last year. But despite all that, he was ignored not only for the captaincy but also for Warner’s deputy role. Instead of him, Indian all-rounder Axar Patel was chosen as the team’s vice-captain for IPL 2023.
Axar has never held any leadership positions in the IPL for Delhi before. The Gujarat cricketer joined the DC set-up ahead of the 2019 season and has been an integral member of the squad since then. He has impressed with his batting and bowling on a number of occasions and will enter this year’s IPL on the back of scoring the third-most runs in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Even though Shaw has not been given any leadership role on paper, he will be part of the leadership group in some capacity or another because of his experience.
