IPL 2025: Five Delhi Capitals ‘Power Players’ to watch out for this season

When the Delhi Daredevils became the Delhi Capitals in 2018, there was renewed hope that the franchise would finally win their maiden title. And for a couple of years, it seemed they were within touching distance, especially after they made the final in 2020. In the past three seasons, however, they have failed to make the playoffs, and the result has been the letting go of Rishabh Pant, their captain, and bringing in another keeper-batter in KL Rahul., and

With a new captain in all-rounder Axar Patel, and new head coach in Hemang Badani, DC look to start afresh once again. They have the bowlers for each phase of the innings, and a mix of youth and experience in batting, but how this all comes together will decide if DC are yet again also-rans or whether they can finally lift the elusive trophy.

Here are five DC players to look out for:

KL Rahul

After a controversial exit from LSG last season—which came after the world saw him being berated on live television by the LSG owner—KL Rahul looks to shed the burden of captaincy and start afresh at the Delhi Capitals.

Now that he has won the Champions Trophy with India, he seems to finally be “good enough” for social media critics. For how long, we don’t know. Ideally, Rahul should go all guns blazing, given that he has had to sort of anchor in previous seasons because of the batting line-ups, but the problem there is that Harry Brook has been banned, which means Rahul could end up adding more caution to his approach.

Except for 2023, where he missed a handful of matches because of injury, Rahul has always scored more than 500 runs a season since 2018. He will want the same this year, but the fact that he won’t open will be an obstacle to that goal.

Axar Patel

Since the last IPL, Axar Patel has won two ICC tournaments and is now an integral part of the Indian line-up in white-ball formats. The 31-year-old all-rounder has more than 1,600 runs and more than 120 wickets in the IPL and, as captain, he would be the fulcrum of DC’s campaign.

Whether he bats up the order to match what he has been doing for India will determine the flow of the team’s batting order. If he does, that could end up being a defensive option.

Ashutosh Sharma

One half of the Ashutosh-Shashank storm has now blown over to the capital city. Sharma, 26, had a bit of a breakout season with Punjab Kings last year, scoring 189 runs at a strike rate of 167.25. He had an almost identical strike rate in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy late last year, and could be key to Delhi’s batting fortunes.

Mitchell Starc

The Aussie veteran was the most expensive buy in last year’s auction, and saved his best for the playoffs to help KKR win the title. In only his fourth IPL season—he has missed several years because of injury or for prioritising national duty—the left-arm pacer will look to replicate that late burst, this time for Delhi Capitals. The point to note is that the Delhi Capitals might not be able to afford an off-colour Starc as much as KKR did last year. He has to be near his best for DC to be title contenders. Also, notably, Starc hasn’t played a T20 since the World Cup last year.

Kuldeep Yadav

Yadav would walk into any team in the world, no questions asked. His style of bowling is unique, and the control he has on that style is unparalleled in today’s game. Unfortunately for the left-arm wrist spinner, India’s talent pool is so deep that there is, at times, a question mark over his selection, and he is on occasion nudged out by the batting prowess of his other Indian spin partners. For Delhi Capitals, though, Kuldeep would be an automatic choice for the first 11, being the only pure spinner in the squad.

His role will be to bowl tight in the middle overs, and partner his captain Patel with the ball. Given that he’s on a high after the Champions Trophy victory, his past issues with confidence might not resurface. At least DC will hope they don’t.