Following their disappointing start, Delhi Capitals (DC) faced a challenging road to redemption. Ultimately, with a record of seven wins and seven losses, they fell short of securing a spot in the playoffs for the third consecutive year.
What are the latest updates for 2025?
DC has chosen a new captain for the upcoming IPL season in 2025. Axar Patel will lead the team, as Rishabh Pant left the franchise after being acquired by Lucknow Super Giants for a whopping INR 27 crore at the auction. Despite having other potential candidates like KL Rahul and Faf du Plessis to choose from, DC ultimately decided to go with Axar.
DC have undergone significant changes in their backroom staff. The team has hired Hemang Badani as their new head coach, taking over from Ricky Ponting. Additionally, they have appointed Venugopal Rao, a former India batter, as the director of cricket. Kevin Pietersen has joined the team as mentor, while Matthew Mott will serve as assistant coach and Munaf Patel as bowling coach for IPL 2025.
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DC’s squad boasts a number of familiar faces. Key players such as Axar, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abhishek Porel were retained from last season, while Jake Fraser-McGurk was brought back through the auction. Additionally, Mukesh Kumar has remained with DC from last year and Karun Nair has previous experience playing for the franchise.
Last season, DC’s fast-bowling unit raised some concerns, prompting them to make strategic investments in strengthening it. This included the acquisitions of Mitchell Starc (INR 11.75 crore), T Natarajan (INR 10.75 crore), Mukesh (INR 8 crore), and Mohit Sharma (INR 2.20 core). In addition, they also secured the services of Rahul for a whopping INR 14 crore. Taking charge of their spin-bowling department will be Kuldeep and Axar.
The most probable top twelve.
1 Jake Fraser-McGurk*, 2 Faf du Plessis*, 3 KL Rahul (wk), 4 Abishek Porel, 5 Tristan Stubbs*, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Either Sameer Rizvi or Mohit Sharma, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mitchell Starc*, 11 T Natarajan, and a possible rotation between Mukesh Kumar and Mohit Sharma.
KL Rahul’s lively conversation with Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjeev Goenka was a major highlight of last season, as was his auction price of INR 14 crore – considerably lower than the amounts paid for Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer. As he joins his fifth IPL team, Rahul will aim to let his performance on the field speak for itself. As he no longer holds the role of captain, he may relish not being in the limelight and unleash his usual attacking batting style.
Which version of Mitchell Starc will we see for DC? He had a varied season with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024, but proved his talent with game-changing performances during the playoffs. Despite coming off a grueling season and recovering from an injury, he is still expected to be the leader of the DC bowling lineup.
Some important statistics
Among batters with a minimum of 20 matches played in the IPL, Rahul boasts the third highest batting average at 45.46.
Porel emerged as Bengal’s top performer in the 2024-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, tallying 335 runs with an impressive strike rate of 158.76.
Fraser-McGurk was DC’s dominant player in IPL 2024, with a striking rate of 234.04 and a total of 330 runs. However, his performance has drastically dropped since then. In the 24 T20 matches following IPL 2024, he has only recorded 382 runs with a strike rate of 136.91 and an average of 15.91.
Despite DC’s investment of INR 6.25 crore in Harry Brook, he has once again withdrawn from the IPL. As per the recently implemented rule, this will result in a two-year suspension for Brook from participating in the tournament and player auction. Therefore, it is likely that Brook will not be able to play in the IPL until IPL 2027.
Unfortunately, Starc was forced to sit out of the Champions Trophy due to an ankle injury. However, he has since recovered and is anticipated to participate in every match of the upcoming IPL season in 2025.
After sitting out the entire 2024-25 domestic season due to injuries, Natarajan is now ready to kick off the new season in full health.
