Picture Credit: Twitter
A leading journalist issued clarification on stories being circulated from Axar Patel’s Instagram account after he was ruled out from the 2023 World Cup squad. Axar Patel got replaced in the World Cup 2023 squad after suffering a thigh injury in the recently concluded Asia Cup 2023. A day after the replacement, Patel made it to the headlines after two screenshots went viral where he allegedly expressed his disappointment after being ruled out of the squad.
The reports claimed that Patel soon deleted the screenshots; however, the posts went viral in no time making many believe that things weren’t well at the cricketer’s end. Meanwhile, a leading journalist issued clarification on the same and said that the stories were fake.
The journalist named Saurabh Malhotra wrote, “Hello everyone! There's a fake screenshot doing the rounds today which is allegedly taken from @akshar2026's Instagram page. He has NOT posted any such story on his social media account, so the question of deleting it doesn't arise. Please treat this as an official clarification, which I'm issuing on his behalf. Thank you.”
Notably, Patel was included in the preliminary squad for the ICC event. However, as luck would have it, the spin bowling all-rounder got ruled out of the squad after he suffered a thigh injury during the Super Fours clash against Bangladesh in Asia Cup 2023. Patel was named in the ODI series against Australia, but his participation was dependent on his recovery.
Since Axar couldn’t recover properly, Ravichandran Ashwin was included in the squad, and later the spinning wizard made it to the ICC ODI World Cup squad as well.