Ahead of the IPL 2025 tournament, Delhi Capitals (DC) are the only franchise left to name their captain for the event. After parting ways with Rishabh Pant ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction, DC bought a couple of veteran players with captaincy experience in the auction.
The likes of KL Rahul and Faf du Plessis were bought by DC in the mega auction, while they also retained Axar Patel, who was the vice-captain of the side in IPL 2024.
According to reports, Axar Patel is expected to be named the new Delhi Capitals (DC) captain for the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). This came after KL Rahul reportedly rejected the offer to captain the franchise and wished to contribute to the team as a player.
The all-rounder took over as DC's captain in the IPL 2024 after his predecessor, Rishabh Pant, was barred from playing a key game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) due to an over-rate offense.
“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,” sources told IANS.
Axar has been with DC since 2019, and he was retained for a staggering Rs 18 crore ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. In his 150-game IPL career, Axar has scored 1653 runs at a strike rate of 130.88 and picked up 123 wickets with his left-arm spin bowling at an economy rate of 7.28.
Axar was India's vice-captain in their 4-1 T20I series win over England at home this year, but his potential promotion to DC's captain for IPL 2025 will be a huge test of his leadership abilities, especially with the club still hunting for their maiden championship win.
Rahul was also a leadership contender after being acquired by the franchise for Rs 14 crore in the big auction last year. The wicketkeeper-batter previously led the Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for two seasons each in the IPL, with the latter reaching the playoffs in 2022 and 2023.
DC will play its first IPL 2025 match against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on March 24 at Visakhapatnam's ACA-VDCA Stadium.
