Delhi Capitals Captain In IPL 2025: Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has identified three potential candidates for the Delhi Capitals' captaincy in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 - Axar Patel, KL Rahul, and Faf du Plessis. Among them, he sees Axar Patel as the frontrunner, given his recent performances for India.
Delhi Capitals' faith in Axar was evident when they retained him for Rs 16.50 crore in last year's mega auction. Meanwhile, KL Rahul was signed for Rs 14 crore, and Faf du Plessis was brought in for Rs 2 crore during the auction.
Axar delivered a strong performance in last year's IPL, picking up 11 wickets at an economy rate of 7.65, along with scoring 235 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 131.28. His all-round contributions make him a strong candidate to lead the team.
"He (Axar) will play the Champions Trophy as well and has been given a very important role in the Indian ODI team. He is mature. He is brilliant. He understands the pulse of the game. He puts the team ahead of himself. So he could be a great choice," Chopra said.
KL Rahul, with his proven leadership experience, is a strong contender for the Delhi Capitals' captaincy. The franchise showed their confidence in him by securing his services for Rs 14 crore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction.
"The second is KL Rahul. I feel they got him cheap. It was a steal. He has got some captaincy credentials. He has captained India, the Punjab Kings, and the Lucknow Super Giants for three years, and they qualified two years as well. So he could be the captain," Chopra remarked.
Chopra also proposed Faf du Plessis as a captaincy candidate, citing his leadership experience. Having led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for three seasons, he brings valuable expertise to the role.
Delhi Capitals IPL 2025 squad: Harry Brook (England), Jake Fraser-McGurk (Australia), Karun Nair (India), Ashutosh Sharma (India), Sameer Rizvi (India), Faf du Plessis (South Africa), KL Rahul (India), Tristan Stubbs (South Africa), Abishek Porel (India), Donovan Ferreira (South Africa), Axar Patel (India), Vipraj Nigam (India), Darshan Nalkande (India), Madhav Tiwari (India), L Manvanth Kumar (India), Tripurana Vijay (India), Ajay Mandal (India), Mitchell Starc (Australia), T Natarajan (India), Mukesh Kumar (India), Mohit Sharma (India), Dushmantha Chameera (Sri Lanka) and Kuldeep Yadav (India).