IPL team profile: Can new leader Axar turn around a revamped Delhi Capitals?

A look at the revamped Delhi Capitals squad for the IPL 2025 reflects their desperation to get back into winning ways after a rather indifferent last cycle.

The Capitals acquired as many as 19 players in the mega auction, including some high-profile names, a new captain and vice-captain and a brand new coaching staff — which will hopefully yield results.

There are hardly a few survivors from the earlier set-up, barring skipper Axar Patel, who had already turned around the fortunes of a rebranded Delhi franchise once — their high point was a runners-up finish in 2020.

However, none of the core Indian batting group of Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw are there any more, and the combination of Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in the dugout has been dispensed with.

There is, though, no dearth of ammo — one of their biggest signings has been K.L. Rahul at Rs 14 lakh, after he parted company with the Lucknow Super Giants on a bitter note.

There's also the ageless Faf du Plessis and pace warhead Mitchell Starc, among others.

Faf, now 40 but a fierce competitor, had been released by the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Capitals have named him the deputy to Axar for his valuable inputs. 

It’s a team that looks strong on paper, with the option of the explosive Jake Fraser-McGurk and Faf on top of the order, the calm Rahul, the in-form Karun Nair and Abhishek Porel — even though the team management must be feeling hard done by over the late pullout of England’s star batter, Harry Brook.

There were no surprises when Brook was handed a two-year ban from the IPL — a decision which was supported by the likes of his England teammates Moeen Ali and Adel Rashid.

“It’s not harsh,” remarked Moeen Ali, before adding: “I kind of agree to it in a way, because a lot of people (players) do that.”

The Hunt is on for a replacement for Brook, and IPL watchers will be interested to see a possible overseas candidate in the role.

Meanwhile, there is no denying that the Capitals squad boasts real quality and variety in their pace attack: Starc, a resurgent T. Natarajan, Sri Lankan Dushmantha Chameera, Mukesh Kumar and the canny Mohit Sharma. The lethal combination ensures the Capitals can dominate both powerplays and death overs effectively.

Axar, who was retained for Rs 16.50 crore, has led Gujarat in domestic cricket and was India’s T20I vice-captain earlier this year. His all-round capabilities will be crucial to both the batting and the bowling departments.

While the pair of Axar and Kuldeep Yadav look awesome on paper, though, there is a lack of experienced back-up — barring Ajay Mandal, an uncapped Indian spinner, and Vipraj Nigam.

The Capitals will play their home matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, one of the smallest cricket grounds in India. The venue, however, provides an advantage to their squad, which features powerful hitters like Tristan Stubbs and Ashutosh Sharma. The combination of a small ground and hard-hitters gives Capitals a significant opportunity to post high totals — an opportunity they would like to cash in on.

Full squad

• Axar Patel (captain)

• Kuldeep Yadav

• Tristan Stubbs

• Abishek Porel

• Mitchell Starc

• K.L. Rahul

• Jake Fraser-McGurk

• T. Natarajan

• Karun Nair

• Sameer Rizvi

• Ashutosh Sharma

• Mohit Sharma

• Faf du Plessis

• Mukesh Kumar

• Darshan Nalkande

• Vipraj Nigam

• Dushmantha Chameera

• Donovan Ferreira

• Ajay Mandal

• Manvanth Kumar

• Tripurana Vijay

• Madhav Tiwari