Delhi Capitals will begin their IPL 2025 campaign against Lucknow Super Giants on March 224 - here's the predicted playing XI for DC including impact player options.
DC's squad for IPL 2025
Delhi Capitals have changed their entire leadership setup. Last season's captain Rishabh Pant and coach Ricky Ponting are both gone. They are yet to announce their captain for IPL 2025, a position which is expected to go to Axar Patel, while Hemang Badani is their new head coach.
Like most teams, DC have a weak middle order with not enough reliable support available for Axar and Tristan Stubbs. Harry Brook, who they would have banked to be their No.4, has pulled out for a second season running and they are yet to name a replacement. Delhi have lots of experienced seamers including Mitchell Starc in their squad, but their spin reserves apart from Axar and Kuldeep Yadav are unknown quantities.
Find the more details on the complete Delhi Capitals squad for IPL 2025 here.
DC predicted XI for IPL 2025
Jake Fraser-McGurk, who lit up IPL 2024 with his powerplay hitting, will pair KL Rahul at the top. Brook's absence means Delhi might have to play Faf du Plessis at three and push Abishek Porel down to four. Axar and Stubbs will then round off the middle order.
Read more: IPL 2025 power rankings: Punjab Kings the best placed side
Their bowling will be led by Starc, who'll have support from experienced Indian seamers in Mukesh Kumar, Mohit Sharma, and T Natarajan. In case Starc is not available, DC have Dushmantha Chameera as his backup, while the backup Indian seamer is Darshan Nalkande.
Ashutosh Sharma, who turned heads for Punjab Kings last season, is the frontrunner to be the impact player and slot in as the finisher at No.7. They also have the in-form Karun Nair in the squad, but their top order is already full and Nair might only come in when there's a collapse. The other Indian batter they can use as an impact player is Sameer Rizvi, who was with CSK last year. If they fancy having an extra spinner, they can pick any one of Vipraj Nigam, Tripurana Vijay, and Madhav Tiwari.
Predicted first XI: Jake Fraser-McGurk*, KL Rahul, Faf du Plessis*, Abishek Porel (wk), Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs*, Mitchell Starc*, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Mohit Sharma, T Natarajan.
Impact player options (in order of priority): Ashutosh Sharma, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Vipraj Nigam, Manvanth Kumar
*= overseas player
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