Former India batter Hemang Badani is likely to be roped in as the head coach of Delhi Capitals (DC) for the IPL 2025 season while World Cup-winner Munaf Patel is the leading contender for a role in the support staff of the franchise, news agency PTI reported.

In July this year, the Capitals parted ways with Australian legend Ricky Ponting as head coach after seven years of association.

"DC management is looking at quality home-grown coaches and Hemang and Munaf's names have cropped up. A final decision is yet to be taken but in the case of Munaf, it could be the bowling coach's job," an IPL source told PTI on condition of anonymity.

On a separate note, the report also claimed that DC will opt for three retentions -- skipper Rishabh Pant (INR 18 crore), all-rounder Axar Patel (INR 14 crore) and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav (INR 11 crore).

Since five retentions would cost INR 75 crore, it is believed that Australia’s Jake-Fraser McGurk, who was the emerging star in this year’s IPL, and South Africa’s Tristan Stubbs, two of their major foreign contributors could be retained with the Right To Match (RTM) option if their price tags are within team's budget.

Badani's name emerging as the head coach could be a case of change of management for the next two years where GMR, one of the co-owners, the other being JSW, would be running the show.

As per the report, the two co-owners have an agreement on micro-managing the team two years each at a time.

Badani has previously worked with Sunrisers Hyderabad. He has represented India in four Tests and 40 ODIs, scoring 961 runs across the two formats with one century.

Hemang Badani would be expected to guide DC to its first-ever IPL title which has eluded the franchise since the inception of the league in 2008.

(With PTI Inputs)