Delhi Capitals aim for playoffs with a mix of old and new faces

They have revamped their seam-bowling unit but will have to deal with Starc's unavailability in the early stages

Himanshu Agrawal

Published: Mar 25, 2026, 4:53 AM (2 hrs ago)

Where Delhi Capitals finished last year

Despite starting the season with four successive victories, Delhi Capitals (DC) finished fifth in IPL 2025. Just one win in their last five completed games meant they missed out on the playoffs spot for the fourth consecutive season.

What's new in 2026

DC revamped their batting for IPL 2026, and three of their recruits have been in good form. Pathum Nissanka and David Miller showed their class at the 2026 T20 World Cup, while Nitish Rana was Delhi's highest run-getter at the 2025-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. However, Prithvi Shaw, who is back with DC, had a quiet T20 season for Maharashtra.

Two of DC's new bowling recruits have been in great touch, too. Lungi Ngidi was South Africa's highest wicket-taker at the T20 World Cup, befuddling batters with his slower deliveries. They also signed Auqib Nabi for INR 8.4 crore. Nabi's 60 wickets took Jammu and Kashmir to their maiden Ranji Trophy title this season. Not just that, he was also the highest wicket-taker for his team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Apart from them, DC have also signed the 6'8" tall Kyle Jamieson, who can provide cushion with the bat as well.

DC have also got 18-year-old batter Sahil Parakh, who smashed 202 runs at a strike rate of 177 at the 2025 Maharashtra Premier League 2025 but is unlikely to start.

Ahead of this season, DC also made changes to their coaching staff. They hired former England batter Ian Bell as assistant coach, and former Ireland allrounder John Mooney as fielding coach.

Who's out or in doubt

Mitchell Starc has resumed bowling, but he will miss the initial part of the season as Cricket Australia monitors his workload ahead of what will be a busy period for his country. Ben Duckett pulled out at the last moment to prioritise his England career. DC are yet to name a replacement but Duckett is likely to face a two-year ban from the IPL.

Likely best XII

1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka*, 3 Nitish Rana/Abishek Porel, 4 Tristan Stubbs*, 5 Axar Patel (capt), 6 David Miller*, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Vipraj Nigam, 9 Auqib Nabi, 10 Dushmantha Chameera/Kyle Jamieson/Lungi Ngidi*, 11 Kuldeep Yadav, 12 T Natarajan

*overseas player

Big question

Watch out for

Axar Patel as captain and bowler. In his first season as a full-time captain in 2025, he underbowled himself and had below-par numbers with the ball. In 12 games, he bowled 34 overs - the second-fewest he has bowled in an IPL season. And he got only five wickets at an economy rate of 8.47, his worst in an IPL season.

But he enters IPL 2026 in good form: he bagged 11 wickets in seven games (economy rate 8.20) at the T20 World Cup. DC will bank on his and Kuldeep Yadav's experience, especially once pitches start to wear and tear.

Key stats

KL Rahul scored 539 runs in IPL 2025, the ninth time in ten editions since 2016 that he crossed 300 in a season. His strike rate of 149.72 was also his highest since going at 158.41 in 2018.

Tristan Stubbs is one of only three batters to have scored 300 or more runs in the death overs (17-20) across IPL 2024 and 2025. His strike rate of 251.74 far outweighs that of Shashank Singh (213.42) and MS Dhoni (190.00).

Among all grounds to have hosted more than ten IPL matches since 2023, the Arun Jaitley Stadium has seen the second-best scoring rate (9.79).

Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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