Delhi Capitals (DC) captain for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 has been virtually confirmed. Axar Patel will be Rishabh Pant’s replacement. The franchise has yet to confirm this development, but as per reports, the main candidate for the leadership role, KL Rahul, has declined the franchise’s offer.
Axar Patel confirmed as Delhi Capitals’ captain?
This suggests two things. First, despite ending his captaincy at the Lucknow Super Giants on a bad note, with a seventh-place finish last season, DC wanted KL Rahul to be their captain for IPL 2025. But the wicketkeeper has put a wrench in DC’s plan by saying no.
Now they are left with one option: Axar Patel. He was DC’s top retention before the IPL 2025 auction and was given a hefty sum, Rs 16.50 crore. It was expected that he’d be named captain, but when DC acquired KL Rahul for just Rs 14 crore, that changed.
“Yes, Axar Patel is likely to be named as Delhi Capitals skipper for IPL 2025. The franchise had asked for KL Rahul to be the team’s captain, but he very much wishes to contribute to the side as a player in the upcoming tournament,” a source told IANS.
Axar Patel’s record as captain
The only question now would be how well would Axar Patel do as Delhi Capitals captain. Unlike KL Rahul, who is the eighth most capped skipper in IPL history, the spin-bowling all-rounder has just one match experience when it comes to captaincy in the league.
But in domestic cricket, he’s got a lot more in the bank. Axar has led Gujarat in all three formats. His most recent T20 appearance as captain came in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year. Of course, one can’t forget that he’s also Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy in T20Is, the India cricket team’s vice-captain.
Delhi Capitals squad for IPL 2025
KL Rahul, Harry Brook (withdraw), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Karun Nair, Faf du Plessis, Donovan Ferreira, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Axar Patel, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav
