Delhi Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal hinted at an unexpected name for the captaincy role in IPL 2025 on Wednesday. After successful buys at the IPL mega auction 2025, the fans are speculating about KL Rahul and Faf du Plessis' names for potential captain but the DC co-owner pushed for Axar Patel's name for the role.
Delhi tried their best to sign back their former captain Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer in the two-day event in Jeddah but were outbid by their rivals. The Capitals managed to sign KL Rahul for Rs 14 crore and then also roped in the former RCB and South Africa captain Faf du Plessis to boost their batting and captaincy options for the 2025 season.
When asked about a captaincy role for KL Rahul, co-owner Parth Jindal talked about Axar Patel's long stay with the franchise. He also highlighted the all-rounder's vice-captaincy role in the previous season and added that the management will make the decision on a leadership role later.
Axar was the most expensive player among Delhi's four retentions and is currently leading Gujarat in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024.
"It's a bit premature to talk about the captaincy," Parth Jindal told ESPNCricinfo. "Axar Patel has been with the franchise for a very long time and he was the vice-captain for the last cycle, so we don't know whether it's going to be Axar or whether it's going be somebody else. A lot has to happen. I spoke to KL but haven't met him yet. I know him very well personally, I will understand from him (what he thinks), and, it will boil down to what the coaching group and finally what Kiran (Grandhi, the co-owner) and I want to do. There's a lot of time for that."
Meanwhile, Jindal also revealed that the Capitals wanted to sign one of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant in the mega auction.
"Going into the auction, obviously we had a budget in mind for a marquee Indian batsman," Parth Jindal added. "Shreyas and Rishabh were coming out in the first set and KL was coming out in the second set. We were very clear that between the three of them, we needed to get one. So we went all the way for Shreyas. Frankly, it (Shreyas' bid) went a bit too high and I think my reaction was very visible on the table (chuckles) - it (the bid) had crossed all budgets."
Delhi Capitals squad for IPL 2025
Retained: Axar Patel (INR 16.5 crore), Kuldeep Yadav (INR 13.25 crore), Tristan Stubbs (INR 10 crore), Abishek Porel (INR 4 crore).
Bought in Auction: KL Rahul (INR 14 crore), Faf du Plessis (INR 2 crore), Jake Fraser-McGurk (INR 9 crore - RTM), Mitchell Starc (INR 11.75 crore), Harry Brook (INR 6.25 crore), T Natarajan (INR 10.75 crore), Mukesh Kumar (INR 8 crore - RTM), Mohit Sharma (INR 2.2 crore), Sameer Rizvi (INR 95 Lakh) and Ashutosh Sharma (INR 3.8 crore), Karun Nair (INR 50 Lakh), Darshan Nalkande (INR 30 Lakh), Vipraj Nigam (INR 50 Lakh), Dushmantha Chameera (INR 75 Lakh), Donovan Ferreira (INR 75 Lakh), Ajay Mondal (INR 30 Lakh), Manvanth Kumar (INR 30 Lakh), Tripurana Vijay (INR 30 Lakh), Madhav Tiwari (INR 40 Lakh).
