IPL 2025: Rishabh Pant retention in doubt, THIS teammate of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to be new head coach of Delhi Capitals, he went on MS Dhoni’s maiden international tour

Delhi Capitals are still in a quandary if they will be able to retain wicketkeeper and their captain Rishabh Pant for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. They are also the only team currently yet to announce their head coach after Australian Ricky Ponting ended his ties with the franchise and joined Punjab Kings.

However, reports have now emerged that former India batter and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batting coach Hemang Badani could be taking over as new DC head coach. Badani is already associated with DC’s ILT20 franchise Dubai Capitals.

The former India southpaw turned out in 4 Tests and 40 ODIs for India alongside the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Badani managed just 94 runs in Test cricket and scored 867 runs in ODIs at an average of 33.34 with 1 hundred and 4 fifties.

In first-class cricket, Badani scored 6,758 runs in 121 matches at an average of 45.97 with 14 hundreds and 45 fifties. The Tamil Nadu batter was in fact a teammate of MS Dhoni on his maiden international tour with the India ‘A’ team back in 2004. It was on this tour that world first took notice of former India captain and wicketkeeper Dhoni.

Another former India and Deccan Chargers (now Sunrisers Hyderabad) cricketer Venugopal Rao will be joining DC in role of ‘Director of Cricket’. The post was previously occupied by Sourav Ganguly but it seems the former BCCI president and India captain will not be returning to the franchise next year.

Badani and Venugopal Rao have played together for MRF in the Chennai league and are known for their strong association and professional understanding, and the Delhi Capitals management has granted them the freedom to select the rest of the coaching staff.

“Both Venugopal and Badani have been involved with the franchise’s subsidiaries elsewhere – mainly in the ILT20 in UAE and Major League Cricket (MLC) in the US. Incidentally, both those sides – Dubai Capitals and Seattle Orcas – are owned by Delhi Capitals co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi of the GMR Group. The JSW group is the other co-owner of the Delhi side and as reported previously, the GMR group currently holds the reins of the franchise management that alternates between the partners every two years,” a report in Cricbuzz website stated.

 

Remeber the name – #HemangBadani is the new head coach of #DelhiCapitals. #Munafpatel is the new bowling coach. Venugopal rao is the new director of cricket. So, it was decided by GMR group (co-owners of DC) to remove both Ponting & Ganguly from the setup. pic.twitter.com/jzds71PDKg

— Cinephile (@shiv_kmrn) October 16, 2024

The report also stated that Rishabh Pant is expected to announce his commitment to DC once the India vs New Zealand 2024 Test series gets over. All the 10 franchises have until October 31 to announce their retentions.

“DC management is looking at quality home-grown coaches and Hemang and Munaf’s (Patel) names have cropped up. A final decision is yet to be taken but in case of Munaf, it could be bowling coach’s job,” an IPL source was quoted as saying by PTI news agency.

Delhi Capitals, like most of the other franchises, is likely to opt for three retentions – skipper Rishabh Pant (18 crore), all-rounder Axar Patel (Rs 14 crore) and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav (Rs 11 crore).

Since five retentions would cost Rs 75 crore, it is believed that Australian batter Jake-Fraser McGurk and South African batter Tristan Stubbs could be picked with the Right To Match (RTM) cards if their price tags are within team’s budget.

Meanwhile, Cricbuzz website also report that either a Saudi city or Singapore could potentially be chosen as the venue for the IPL auction. It is also heard now that Vienna is being considered. The auction is expected to take place by the end of November.