Ganesh Kendale
MUMBAI: In a sensational development, India’s star wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant will not lead the Delhi Capitals in IPL-2025, TOI has reliably learnt.
“Yes, the Delhi Capitals could be looking for a new captain. There are chances that India allrounder Axar Patel may take over as the new IPL captain, or the franchise could be eyeing someone who is captaincy material at the IPL auction (likely to take place overseas in mid-November).Pant, though, is set to be the franchise’s top retention. It’s just that the leadership group at DC feels that he’s better off without the pressures of captaincy,” the source told TOI.
DC last reached the IPL playoffs in IPL-2021, and their best-ever finish in the IPL is when they finished as IPL-2020 finalists, under India batsman Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy.
Returning from an injury in a horrific car accident which kept him out of the game for a year-and-a-half, Pant led the Delhi Capitals in IPL-2024, where they finished sixth, logging six wins and losing as many matches.
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One possible option for the franchise in the auction, if the Kolkata Knight Riders don’t retain him, is Iyer, who led KKR to their third IPL title earlier this year.
It’s learnt that Pant recently met with Delhi Capitals’ co-owners Parth Jindal and Kiran Kumar Grandhi to discuss his future at the franchise.
Interestingly, just after midnight on October 12, the 27-year-old posted on X (formerly Twitter), “If I go to the auction, will I be sold or not and for how much ??”
Pant has been India’s biggest match-winner with the bat in recent times in Test cricket, but his performance in white-ball formats hasn’t been at par with his red-ball exploits for India.
In 76 T20Is, he has scored 1,209 runs, with just three half-centuries, at an average of 23.25, and a strike rate of 127.26.
One solid knock from him was a 31-ball 42 against Pakistan on a difficult pitch in New York in a low-scoring match of the 2024 T20 World Cup, that helped India win the match by six runs. In the IPL, where he has played for the Delhi-based IPL franchise all through, Pant has scored 3284 runs in 111 matches@35.31, with 18 fifties and one hundred.
In the 2022 T20 World Cup, Pant was pipped by Dinesh Karthik in India’s XI during the T20 World Cup.
The Delhi Capitals recently appointed former India and Tamil Nadu batsman Hemang Badani as head coach for the next two seasons, while also appointing his former India teammate Venugopal Rao as the team’s director of cricket.
