With five wins in their first six games, Delhi Capitals were off to a flier in IPL 2025 before calamity struck, a largely self-imposed one at that. KL Rahul, Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abhishek Porel, and Karun Nair found themselves on the merry-go-round as five different opening combinations were used throughout a season of contrasting halves. An average of 19.23 upfront, the lowest among all franchises, begged the question whether the management’s constant tinkering was wise at all. Shouldn’t the senior pros holding an experience of over 200 kick-offs between them be entrusted with the foundation from the word go?
“A settled opening pair is only possible when your opening pair gives you a start,” Delhi Capitals head coach Hemang Badani reasoned. “If you don’t get starts, you are bound to make changes to try and fill that gap. Other sides have had great powerplay with the bat, unfortunately we haven’t had those. Opening at the top was a worry for us.”
Their fixtures against Gujarat Titans proved to be anomalies. They almost had a nimble fifty partnership to begin proceedings in Ahmedabad whereas Rahul smashed an unbeaten 112 off 65 balls on their home ground. The sweet taste of victory, however, eluded Delhi Capitals as their bowling unit could not defend 200+ targets on either occasion, the latter particularly wounding as Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharshan carried their bats. Their frontline bowlers did the job reasonably well during the campaign but the supporting cast floundered big time. For instance, the match against Mumbai Indians, where the final two overs delivered by Mukesh Kumar and Dushmantha Chameera cost an eye-popping 48 runs.
Badani agreed that it is a sport of small margins. “Until then, the 18 overs that were bowled by us were phenomenal but our execution wasn’t to our expectation in the end. We should be able to read the game better, be able to understand that the surface was slower. We could have gone to the cutters and wide yorkers,’’ he said.
An excellent proponent of the slower ball, Lungi Ngidi will bring that nous to an attack spearheaded by Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Mitchell Starc. Coming off an emphatic Ranji Trophy is Jammu and Kashmir seamer Auqib Dar while Kyle Jamieson ought to excel on the faster pitches in Dharamshala, Mohali, Kolkata and Mumbai. The retention of Thangarasu Natarajan is a key development, given the left-armer thrived at Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024 but had only two outings at Delhi Capitals and bowled in just one, an expensive night that saw the 10.75 crore-signing concede 49 runs in 18 balls. His ability to generate sharp angles, nail the yorkers at the death, and bamboozle sloggers by rolling his fingers across the seam makes Natarajan an ideal substitute for Mustafizur Rahman, whose participation in the upcoming edition has been hampered by geopolitical tensions.
Seated for these blockbusters 🎬 pic.twitter.com/4xnn1kFyNd
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) March 11, 2026
Entering the auction with a purse of Rs 21.80 crore, Delhi Capitals had eight slots to fill, including five overseas options. The batting line-up receives an unsparing dose of power in the form of David Miller, Ben Duckett, Prithvi Shaw and Pathum Nissanka who produced a century against India in the Asia Cup and blazed off the blocks in the T20 World Cup with a ton versus Australia. The uncapped keeper-bat Abishek Porel stepped up as Rishabh Pant’s replacement in IPL 2023 and has since featured in 31 matches across three years, scoring 661 runs at a strike rate of 150. Part of a domestic core that comprises of Nair, Nitish Rana, wunderkinds Sahil Parakh and Sameer Rizvi, finisher Ashutosh Sharma and all-rounder Madhav Tiwari would be keen to push the rising stocks of Madhya Pradesh in Indian cricket.
When skipper Axar Patel was down with a bad flu Delhi Capitals had a single southpaw in their top eight. Not only his hair follicles but his career is also in the pink of its health now. He was instrumental to India’s 2024 T20 World Cup glory and became India’s T20I vice-captain six months later. In the marquee event gone by, his athleticism in the outfield shone through as Tim Seifert and Daryl Mitchell fell prey to his wonder grabs. Axar also claimed the wicket of Finn Allen, whose 33-ball ton against South Africa in the semi-final shattered records.
Time will tell if Tripurana Vijay, an economical off-spinner, or Vipraj Nigam can serve as the ideal foil to the Kuldeep-Axar duo when the conditions demand a helping hand, for example in Ekana and Chepauk as well as in their own backyard. Speaking of expectations, Tristan Stubbs was regarded as an unfulfilled talent until he had a breakthrough in IPL 2024 and never looked back. Having matured into an all-format Protea, he must be in readiness for an encore of his Delhi gem, which consisted of a 14-ball 34 and a six that sealed the deal in the Super Over.
His South African team-mate David Miller had an extraordinary 2022 at number five, helping Gujarat Titans lift the IPL trophy in their debut season. Role clarity and unflinching support from the group, he reckoned, paved the way to his best IPL tally – 449 runs in 15 matches with an average of 96 against spin. “I have been backed all through, playing all the games and it allows you as a player to settle and to really not worry about the selection, more so actually winning games,” said Miller, the orchestrator of victory from a precarious 48/4 chasing 170 against Chennai Super Kings in the group stage.
The top-order loaded and bowling pool diversified, Delhi Capitals seem to have nailed their auction strategy of rectifying the pain points that kept them from advancing to the eliminators. Axar has been in the thick of the action at the international level, so much so that Suryakumar Yadav had to recently admit that benching his deputy was an error. Fans will hope his growing stature encompasses an IPL title, a feat that has remained beyond the realms of possibility for his team since the inception of the cash-rich league in 2008. They did finish runners-up in 2020, losing to Mumbai Indians, hence big-match temperament is not entirely absent. The personnel box is ticked too, will the stars finally align for Delhi Capitals?
