Forget KL Rahul, THIS player is the top pick for captaincy in Delhi Capitals camp for IPL 2025

New Delhi: Aakash Chopra, former India cricketer, has identified three potential candidates for the Delhi Capitals captaincy in the upcoming IPL 2025—Axar Patel, KL Rahul, and Faf du Plessis. Chopra believes that Axar Patel is the frontrunner for the role due to his rising stature in Indian cricket. The Delhi Capitals showed their faith in Axar by retaining him for ₹16.50 crore before the mega auction. They also secured the services of KL Rahul for ₹14 crore and Faf du Plessis for ₹2 crore at the Jeddah auction. Axar had an outstanding IPL 2024 season, taking 11 wickets with an economy rate of 7.65 and scoring 235 runs at a strike rate of 131.28 in 12 innings.

“I feel Delhi have three options. They have Axar Patel and KL Rahul, and they have Faf du Plessis as well. They retained Axar Patel. Bapu’s stature is growing. He has been outstanding of late. He is the Indian T20I team’s vice-captain,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

“He 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 also highlighted KL Rahul’s leadership experience as a strong factor in his captaincy bid. “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 for two years as well. So he could be the captain,” he noted.

While considering unconventional choices, Aakash Chopra mentioned Faf du Plessis as a potential option but leaned towards Axar Patel as the likely pick for Delhi Capitals’ captaincy. “I think it’s going to be a close race. One has been retained, and the other has been bought. So, it will be between these two. But if they want to go completely left-field, then Faf du Plessis, who seems ageless, could be an option. However, I have a feeling that it could be Axar,” he remarked.

In another major captaincy development, Chopra expressed surprise at the appointment of Rajat Patidar as the new Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain for IPL 2025. “Rajat Patidar is RCB’s new leader. We shall find out how effective he would be. We thought it would be Kohli, but he is not. Rajat Patidar is the eighth captain. Before him, they had Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Kevin Pietersen, Daniel Vettori, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, and Virat Kohli, who captained them for the longest time.”

While RCB have yet to secure an IPL title, Aakash Chopra highlighted that they are still a competitive team. “Great players have led this franchise. While success is often measured by the number of trophies won, RCB is not an unsuccessful team despite not winning one. They have been a reasonably successful franchise without a title. It’s not a team that consistently finishes at the bottom or struggles near the wooden spoon,” he noted.