IPL 2025: Delhi Capitals Look For A Fresh Start Under Axar Patel's Leadership – News18

Delhi Capitals Season Preview, IPL 2025: Delhi Capitals embark on a new journey under the leadership of Axar Patel. With a new management at the helm, led by the Head Coach, Hemang Badani, Director of Cricket, Venugopal Rao, Munaf Patel as the Bowling coach, and Kevin Pietersen as their mentor, the franchise will hope to improve upon their previous season’s performance and get themselves in contention for a spot in the IPL 2025 playoffs.
The new season comes as a massive test for Axar as a captain, and it will be interesting to see how he deals with the challenge. One of the biggest concerns for the side is the lack of spin options. While Kuldeep Yadav and Axar make for a strong attack, they lack an additional experienced spinner.
Another key aspect that DC will be banking on is the opening pair. KL Rahul has opened the innings but with Faf du Plessis also in the side, it remains to be seen if the team would opt to give the former South African international a spot at the top with Rahul possibly coming down at three.
The form of the young Australian sensation, Jake Fraser-McGurk, will also play a big role in how DC’s campaign pans out. While he had a memorable debut season in 2024, since making the jump up to international cricket, he has been unable to replicate his blistering form of late. Both the franchise and the player will hope that a return the IPL will help him rediscover his lost form.
A revamped fast-bowling attack led by the experienced Mitchell Starc will be expected to deliver. With the likes of T Natarajan and Mukesh Kumar also likely to start, the fast-bowling trio could be a lethal force in the coming season.
Both Abishek Porel and Ashutosh Sharma who had fine performances last year, would hope to improve on their game and go up a level to give DC a solid middle-order batting unit. In addition, Karun Nair, who is coming after a stellar domestic campaign would look to make use of his experience and get the big runs for his side.
As far as impact subs are concerned, the franchise can go for the young talent in Sameer Rizvi who can deliver explosive cameos with the bat or bank on the experienced Mohit Sharma to chip in with his variations with the ball.
Barring the spin department, DC have most of their bases covered, it just comes down to whether the players are able to step up and cover for their deficiencies during the campaign.

DC had a fairly average display in the previous season. They finished sixth on the table with 14 points, winning and losing seven games each. Their inferior net run-rate resulted in the side missing out on the playoffs. Rishabh Pant finished as their leading run-scorer with 446 runs in 13 games at an average of 40.54 and a strike-rate of 155.4. Mukesh Kumar was their leading wicket-taker, with 17 wickets from 10 games at an average of 21.64 and an economy rate of 10.36.

DC Playing XI: KL Rahul, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel (wk), Karun Nair, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel (c), Ashutosh Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan
Impact Sub: Mohit Sharma/Sameer Rizvi

Axar Patel (c), KL Rahul (wk), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Karun Nair, Faf du Plessis, Donovan Ferreira (wk), Abishek Porel (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar L, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari
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