After parting ways with two-time World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting, IPL franchise Delhi Capitals (DC) are reportedly preparing to sign two former World Cup winners as part of their coaching and support staff. Delhi Capitals parted ways with Ponting after seven years. Ahead of IPL 2025, franchises will need to revamp their teams with a mega auction on the cards. However, sources close to the franchise have revealed that Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly is unlikely to be appointed as coach, and that they are in the hunt for someone who “follows the circuit aggressively”.

The Delhi Capitals are one of the few franchises who have never won an IPL title; their best finish being runners-up in 2020. Reportedly, DC are in the hunt for someone similar to Gautam Gambhir to take charge.

“Ganguly already has a lot of things on his plate – planning multiple things for the franchise as the Director of Cricket. The team needs a very hands-on coach who follows the circuit very aggressively. Like Gautam Gambhir does. It’s no surprise that he has been so successful as a mentor,” a source who wished to maintain anonymity told News 18.

“The management doesn’t want a stop-gap arrangement for the head coach position as it’s the season right after the mega auction as the new cycle gets underway,” added the source.

Reportedly, a meeting between the higher-ups at DC will take place after the ongoing season of Major League Cricket in the USA comes to a close.

Since reaching the final in 2020, the Capitals have failed to qualify for the IPL playoffs. The team finished 6th in IPL 2024 among 10 teams.

Three Delhi Capitals players starred for Team India in their victorious T20 World Cup 2024 campaign: Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel. All three are contenders to be retained by DC ahead of the mega auction, along with Australia hotshot Jake Fraser-McGurk.

Delhi Capitals assistant coach Pravin Amre opened up about the exclusion of Prithvi Shaw from the playing XI for the past couple of matches after the franchise concluded their Indian Premier League 2024 group stage. Shaw was retained by the Capitals ahead of the season and didn’t feature in the first two games. In his first game of IPL 2024, he struck a quick 43 off 27 balls against Chennai Super Kings. The right-handed batter went on to score 66(40) against the five-time champion Mumbai Indians. But his form started to waver after that.

On the other hand, Abhishek Porel made the most of the opportunity and smacked 327 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 159.51.

Porel starred in DC’s final game of the group stage on Tuesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium against the Lucknow Super Giants. DC stood victorious with a 19-run win.

He left the opposition bowlers gobsmacked with his knock of 58 off 33 deliveries. He aided DC in the powerplay, which saw them amass 73 runs. He also forged a 92-run stand with Shai Hope for the second wicket.

“He [Shaw] was our retained player, and as you see, last four [of five] games he was also on the bench. But that’s the IPL. If you are not in form, you can’t [keep your place]. Ultimately, the pressure for the team is so much that every game is important and we have to win,” Amre said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.

“And we had done that. Without playing him, we won the games. And whoever got the opportunity… I think Abishek grabbed the opportunities with both hands,” he added.

Shaw made a total of eight appearances for DC in the ongoing season. In eight matches, he has 198 runs at an average of 24.75 and a strike rate of 163.64. In his eight appearances, he has a sole fifty to his name.

While Porel featured across various positions for DC. In the three matches the left-handed batter played as an opener, Porel amassed 159 runs at a strike rate of 165.62.

Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday qualified for the Indian Premier League play-offs after rain washed out their IPL match against Gujarat Titans in Hyderabad without a ball being bowled. SRH thus became the third team to make the cut after following Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, who are currently occupying the top two places in the standings. The Sunrisers received one point to take their tally to 15 points with one match to go. They will face Punjab Kings, who have already been eliminated, on May 19 in their last league assignment.

GT, the last year’s runners-up and 2022 champions, were knocked out of the play-off race after their previous match was also abandoned due to rain. They thus end the season with 12 points from 14 matches.

The toss didn’t happen at scheduled time of 7 pm due to rain and wet outfield. The rain intensified before settling into a steady shower as the covers and outfield stayed covered.

The cut-off time for a five-over game was 10:56 PM, which meant the drizzle needed to stop for mop-up to begin by around 10:15pm but with rain showing no signs of abating, the official decided to abandon the match.

It is the second game to be called off in this IPL, because of rain and wet outfield.

Three teams — Chennai Super Kings (14), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (12) and Lucknow Super Giants (12) — are still in fray for the battle for the last spot.

If LSG win against Mumbai Indians on Friday, they will move to 14 points to stay mathematically alive but CSK will seal the spot if they beat RCB or the game is washed out on Saturday.

If RCB beat CSK by at least 18 runs or 11 balls to spare then they will grab the fourth available spot on the basis of net run-rate as they would be on 14 points, same as CSK and LSG (if they win).