There’s a decent chance you’ve watched Axar Patel bowl a tight, unglamorous over in the middle overs and thought nothing of it – and that’s kind of the point. He doesn’t do flash. What he does is show up in Axar Patel Profile, over after over, series after series, and somehow he’s turned that into a career good enough to make him captain of Delhi Capitals and a fixture in India’s setup across all three formats. This piece walks through his life story and his numbers – where he grew up, his age and Axar Patel height, his family, his wife and son, what he’s worth financially, the number on his back, and the full stats sheet across every format he’s played.
If you came here chasing any of that – his stats, who he married, or just settling an argument about how tall he actually is – everything below is pulled together from sources people actually trust in Indian cricket.
Axar Patel Player Profile
Do the maths off that 20 January 1994 birthdate and you land on 32, as of late 2026. Officially he’s Akshar Rajeshbhai Patel, but nobody in commentary boxes or headlines bothers with the full version – it’s Axar, plain and simple, and you’ll find both spellings, Akshar and Axar, floating around online more or less interchangeably. Family-wise, he’s Patel through and through, from the Kheda belt of Gujarat.
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Akshar Rajeshbhai Patel |
| Nickname | Axar, Bapu, Akku |
| Date of Birth | 20 January 1994 |
| Age | 32 years (as of late 2026) |
| Birthplace | Anand, Gujarat, India |
| Hometown | Nadiad, Kheda district, Gujarat |
| Batting Style | Left-handed |
| Bowling Style | Slow left-arm orthodox |
| Role | All-rounder |
| Father | Rajesh Patel |
| Mother | Pritiben Patel |
Who Is Axar Patel?
Full name Akshar Rajeshbhai Patel, though good luck finding anyone who actually calls him that. Bats left-handed, bowls slow left-arm orthodox, plays all three formats for India, and captains Delhi Capitals now too. The “Bapu” nickname? Supposedly MS Dhoni dropped it on him mid-match one day, and somehow it just never went away. Talk to guys in his current dressing room and a lot of them will point to him as one of the ones you want around when a game gets tense.
Easy to forget, but none of this was ever the plan. Small-town Gujarat kid who wanted to be a mechanical engineer, not a World Cup winner – and yet here we are, World Cup medal and franchise captaincy included. On the field, he tends to turn up exactly when needed, a breakthrough wicket here, a handy twenty runs there. Off it, from what people who know him say, he’s almost the opposite of what you’d expect from someone this good – low-key, unbothered, the kind of guy who’d rather blend in than stand out.
Early Life and Family Background
Born 20 January 1994, in Anand, Gujarat ( Home Town ) – though the actual family home is in Nadiad, in the Kheda district, a bit further along. Cricket wasn’t an automatic yes at home either. His mother, Pritiben Patel, would rather he’d stuck to his studies, at least early on; it was his father, Rajesh Patel, a district-level cricketer himself, who kept nudging him toward the game. He grew up with an older brother, Sanship, and a sister, Shivangi – sometimes spelled Shivani – both around him while he made his way up through Axar Patel age-group cricket.
And here’s the twist most people don’t know: he’d actually enrolled to study mechanical engineering at Dharmsinh Desai University in Nadiad before cricket pulled him away entirely. Coach Sanjaybhai took him under his wing at the Kheda District Cricket Academy – and Axar wasn’t even bowling spin back then, he started as a pace bowler and got switched to left-arm orthodox somewhere along the way. There’s one anecdote that comes up in almost every profile of him: his father apparently telling him to go fulfil his grandmother’s dream of watching him play for India. Small thing, maybe, but it’s the kind of detail that tends to stick with people.
Axar Patel Height and Physical Profile
Roughly 6 feet – 183 cm, if metric’s more your thing. That bit of extra height does real work for a left-arm spinner; it’s part of why he gets the kind of bounce that’s troubled English batters more than once in Test cricket.
On the scales he’s somewhere around 70–75 kg – enough bulk to survive a heavy bowling workload without wearing down, and lately enough strength to actually clear the ropes when it matters in T20 finishes. That same frame carries over into the field too. Sharp in the deep, just as comfortable tucked in tight at short leg – spots that reward reflexes over raw size, and he’s got no shortage of either.
Domestic Career and Rise Through the Ranks
Debuted in first-class cricket for Gujarat back in 2012, the usual route up through the state age-group system. The 2013–14 Ranji Trophy season is where it really started to click – a genuinely strong all-round year that got IPL scouts paying attention. He’s stuck with Gujarat in Ranji and Vijay Hazare cricket ever since, plus a brief stopover at Durham in county cricket in 2018.
Numbers-wise, it’s a solid domestic body of work: 2,517 first-class runs at 35.95, a hundred and 19 fifties to go with it, and 197 wickets at 25.25 with a best of 7/54. Nothing loud about it, honestly – just the sort of steady, two-way contribution that gets selectors to eventually take notice.
IPL Career and Jersey Number
2013, Mumbai Indians, zero games played – that’s how his IPL career technically began. Things actually got moving a year later at Kings XI Punjab, where 17 wickets earned him the league’s “Emerging Player of the Year” gong. Then there’s the 2016 hat-trick – still the only one of that season – four wickets in five balls against Gujarat Lions. He’s called Delhi Capitals home since 2019, and 2025 is when they handed him the captaincy, a job he’s held onto through 2026 as well.
Number 20 on the back, for club and country both. Across 176 IPL appearances he’s racked up 2,089 runs at roughly 21.76, a top score of 66, four half-centuries, 146 fours and an even 100 sixes.
International Career: Test, ODI and T20I Journey
The ODI debut goes back to 15 June 2014, against Bangladesh. The Test cap took a fair bit longer – Ravindra Jadeja had that all-rounder’s slot pretty much locked up for years. When Axar’s turn finally came, against England on 13 February 2021 in Chennai, he made it count in a hurry: five wickets on debut, only the ninth Indian bowler to pull that off. From there it snowballed – 27 wickets across that series alone, still the record haul for a debutant, plus his first ten-wicket match (11/70) in the pink-ball Test at Ahmedabad thrown in for good measure.
T20I debut came a bit earlier, 17 July 2015, against Zimbabwe. Since then he’s quietly become one of the more essential pieces of India’s white-ball puzzle – a big part of the 2024 T20 World Cup triumph in the West Indies and USA, then again when India went back-to-back and defended the title in 2026, the first side ever to manage that. Throw in a Champions Trophy win in 2025 and the T20I vice-captaincy that same year, and it’s been a busy stretch for him.
Career Stats at a Glance
Numbers as they stand, broken down format by format below.
Batting
| Format | Matches | Runs | Average | Highest Score | 100s/50s |
| Test | 15 | 688 | 34.40 | 84 | 0/4 |
| ODI | 71 | 858 | 23.18 | 64* | 0/3 |
| T20I | 91–95 | 700–717 | 18.42 | 65 | 0/1 |
| First-Class | 57 | 2,517 | 35.95 | 110* | 1/19 |
| IPL | 176 | 2,089 | 21.76 | 66 | 0/4 |
Bowling
| Format | Wickets | Average | Best Bowling | 5-Wicket Hauls |
| Test | 57 | 19.66 | 6/38 | 5 |
| ODI | 75 | 32.81 | 3/24 | 0 |
| T20I | 93–97 | 21.30 | 3/9 | 0 |
| First-Class | 197 | 25.25 | 7/54 | 11 |
A Test bowling average under 20 tells its own story. Stack more than 850 ODI runs at a strike rate close to 92 on top of that, plus economy numbers in T20Is that keep captains throwing him the ball late in an innings, and “all-rounder” stops feeling like just a label. Figures vary a touch depending on the source – Wikipedia, BCCI.tv, ESPNcricinfo all update on their own schedule, and he’s been playing right through 2026, so small discrepancies are normal.
Bowling Records and Career Milestones
Some of his sharpest spells have landed exactly when India needed them most. The 6/38 against England, only his second Test, is still his best figures in an innings, and that 11-wicket match haul at the Ahmedabad day-nighter in 2021 ranks among the most complete performances by an Indian spinner on home turf. He also holds more five-wicket hauls in his first four Tests than any Indian bowler before him – not bad, considering how late his Test career actually got started.
In white-ball cricket he doesn’t overcomplicate things – usually under 5 an over in ODIs, around 7.3 in T20Is – which is exactly why captains keep turning to him through the middle overs. His three-wicket spell in the 2026 T20 World Cup final against New Zealand, and the semi-final burst against England in 2024 before that, both come up constantly whenever people list his biggest moments in the big leagues.
R Ashwin and Axar Patel in the IPL: A Spin Duo Comparison
Type “R Ashwin Axar Patel IPL” into Google and you’ll mostly find Axar Patel Profile, people arguing about who’s the better bowler, or just trying to line the two up side by side. Ashwin’s the off-spinner known for his variations and tactical instincts, having led both Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals at different points in his career. Axar took the other route – left-arm orthodox, made his name at Kings XI Punjab, now runs the show at Delhi Capitals as both player and captain. Both have crossed 170-plus IPL games, and both still rank among the most experienced spinners the tournament has ever seen.
Where they differ is in how each of them’s actually used. Ashwin’s whole IPL identity is built around cricketing cunning – the mankad, constant bowling changes, reading a batter’s mind. Axar’s leaned more into being genuinely useful with the bat through the middle order, backed up by tight, unspectacular bowling. Two completely different flavours of all-rounder, and somehow both ended up wearing India colours regardless.
Axar Patel Wife, Marriage, Son and Family Life
Married to Meha Patel, a nutritionist and dietitian by trade. They’d apparently been together a good few years before tying the knot on 26 January 2023, in a Vadodara wedding. Not much of it made it into the press, which seems entirely intentional on their part.
No confirmed date of birth for Meha anywhere official, though word is she’s roughly the same age as Axar. Their son, Haksh, arrived in December 2024. By late 2025 the family had settled into a new home in Nadiad – supposedly christened “Haksh Villa” after him. Axar’s brought up more than once how much Meha’s helped keep him in shape, mostly through diet and lifestyle stuff she handles for him.
Family, laid out together:
| Relation | Name | Details |
| Father | Rajesh Patel | Played district-level cricket; pushed Axar toward the sport early on |
| Mother | Pritiben Patel | Wanted Axar focused on academics before cricket took over |
| Brother | Sanship Patel | Elder brother; supported him through his early cricket years |
| Sister | Shivangi (Shivani) Patel | Also supported his early cricketing ambitions |
| Wife | Meha Patel | Nutritionist and dietitian; married Axar on 26 January 2023 in Vadodara |
| Son | Haksh Patel | Born December 2024; family home in Nadiad reportedly named after him |
Net Worth and Income Sources
Ballpark figure floating around is ₹49 crore to ₹65 crore (about $6–7.5 million) as of 2026 – puts him comfortably among the better-paid names on the Indian contract list. It’s not one paycheck doing all that work, either; the money comes from a handful of different places:
- BCCI’s Grade C central contract for 2025–26, on top of match fees around ₹15 lakh a Test, ₹6 lakh an ODI, ₹3 lakh a T20I
- His IPL deal with Delhi Capitals, ₹16.5 crore a season for both 2025 and 2026
- Endorsement money from SG Cricket, Puma, Fast&Up and Wybor
- A stake he picked up in the sports nutrition brand FitFeast back in 2025
- Property – a Nadiad house valued around ₹10 crore – plus a Range Rover Autobiography bought in 2025
That ₹16.5 crore retention ahead of 2025 nearly doubled his previous pay packet, which tells you plenty about where Delhi Capitals rates him.
Achievements, Awards and Honours
India’s ICC form lately has been genuinely good, and Axar’s medal collection has grown right along with it:
- T20 World Cup wins in 2024 (West Indies & USA) and 2026 (India & Sri Lanka) – India’s now the first team to defend the title successfully
- Champions Trophy winner, 2025, Pakistan
- World Test Championship runners-up, 2021–2023 cycle
- Asia Cup titles in 2018, 2023 and 2025
- The only IPL hat-trick of the 2016 season, against Gujarat Lions
- Emerging Player of the Year, IPL 2014
- Handed the Delhi Capitals captaincy on 13 March 2025, held onto it into 2026
Outside team honours, his 27-wicket debut Test series is still a mark that’s hard for anyone to look past when talking about Indian bowlers starting out in the red-ball game.
Career Timeline at a Glance
| Year | Milestone |
| 2012 | First-class debut for Gujarat |
| 2013 | IPL debut (did not play) with Mumbai Indians |
| 2014 | ODI debut vs Bangladesh; IPL breakthrough with Kings XI Punjab |
| 2015 | T20I debut vs Zimbabwe; picked for the 2015 World Cup squad |
| 2016 | IPL hat-trick vs Gujarat Lions |
| 2019 | Joins Delhi Capitals |
| 2021 | Test debut vs England; 27 wickets in debut series |
| 2023 | Marries Meha Patel |
| 2024 | Part of India’s T20 World Cup-winning squad; son Haksh born |
| 2025 | Named Delhi Capitals captain; India wins Champions Trophy |
| 2026 | Retained by Delhi Capitals for ₹16.5 crore; India defends T20 World Cup title |
Gautam Gambhir Centuries Breakdown
| Format | Centuries | Notable Innings |
| Test | 9 | 206 vs Australia (Delhi, 2008-09); 137 vs New Zealand, Napier (2009) |
| ODI | 11 | Maiden ODI century vs Sri Lanka (2005); tour-saving century vs Bangladesh (2007) |
| T20I | 0 | Best known knock is the 75 in the 2007 T20 World Cup final, not a century |
| Total International Centuries | 20 | — |
His first Test hundred, against Bangladesh, came in December 2004. He made it to the ton in his first ODI a year later, in a triangular series against Sri Lanka. The 218 against Australia in the 2008-09 Border-Gavaskar Trophy is still one of the best innings by any Indian opener against good bowling, part of a series in which he scored 858 runs. But the bigger value, even more than the count, was how often the hundreds came in match-saving and match-winning innings rather than already-lost causes – which is why he’s still remembered as a big-match player.
Playing Style: What Makes Axar Different
He doesn’t do flash – just tight, economical bowling that keeps building pressure over after over. Usually under 5 an over in ODIs and around 7.3 in T20Is, which is exactly why captains trust him with the ball in the pressure overs rather than just the powerplay. His extra height gives him a touch more bounce than the typical left-arm spinner, and having started out as a pace bowler before switching to orthodox spin, his stock ball tends to skid on rather than loop and turn.
With the bat, he’s no stroke-maker, but he’s built a real reputation as a finisher’s understudy – useful lower-middle-order runs, and enough clean hitting now to clear the ropes late. That two-way reliability, paired with a low-key, drama-free temperament off the field, is exactly what turned a small-town Gujarat kid into a World Cup winner and franchise captain.
Read Also: Shreyas Iyer Stats | Yash Thakur Stats | Ishan Kishan
Frequently Asked Questions
Akshar Rajeshbhai Patel – Axar for short, and that’s what sticks in the coverage.
32, going by his 20 January 1994 birthdate.
About 6 feet – 183 cm or so.
Meha Patel, a nutritionist, married in January 2023.
Yes, one son – Haksh, born in December 2024.
20, both for India and for Delhi Capitals.
Somewhere in the ₹49–65 crore range, as of 2026.
Mumbai Indians, then Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), and currently Delhi Capitals, where he’s captain.
6/38 in Tests, 3/24 in ODIs, 3/9 in T20Is.
Source: CricInfo
