IPL 2025: Delhi Capitals Appoint Faf du Plessis as Vice-Captain for New Season

The Delhi Capitals team has finally revealed its Captain and Vice Captain for the TATA IPL 2025. On Monday, March 17, the team management announced that Faf Du Plessis, the experienced South African batsman will be serving the team as a vice captain. Before this, the team had already declared that its captain for this season would be Axar Patel who has been one of the foundation pillars of Delhi Capitals from its origin time. The Delhi Capitals franchise is gearing up for TATA IPL 2025 which is starting from March 22, this year with a refreshed squad as well as the coaching set-up. 

Axar Patel has taken the leadership from the hands of Rishabh Pant, who has left the team this season and joined Lucknow SuperGiants. By making this tough decision, the management has made it clear that they support their players who have been with them in the tough times. 

A Veteran Addition

Faf du Plessis is bringing with him the experience of a whole generation to the Delhi Capitals team of which they are in desperate need. Before this season, this former South African Captain has led Royal Challengers Bengaluru for the last three IPL seasons. He has led the RCB team to playoffs two times during his tenure. Surprisingly this year he was not retained by Royal Challengers Bangaluru ahead of the IPL mega auction. It was a big opportunity for every other IPL franchise to acquire him in their squad but Delhi Capitals made sure that no one else could grab him before them. They made a deal of a whopping sum of Rs 2 crores to keep him by their side. 

After his appointment as vice-captain, Du Plessis was also seen in a promotional video of the team. He expressed his excitement about being a part of Delhi Capitals and referred to the Arun Jaitley Stadium as his “home.”

Competition and Opportunity

Faf Du Plessis has been a consistent performer in the previous IPL seasons. In IPL 2023 he was the second highest run-scorer in the tournament where he scored a total of 730 runs. Last year also he was looking in good shape as he accumulated 438 runs. This year also Faf is entering the tournament after giving a strong performance in the SA20 league. He scored 286 runs in just 11 matches that he played for Jo’burg Super Kings. 

His leadership qualities and experience are known to all but what would be crucial for Delhi Capitals to figure out is fixing his batting position in the playing eleven. Last year, Jake Fraser-McGurk opened up for Delhi Capitals and had an impressive season. It will be interesting to see, who will open for Delhi Capitals this year.  

The selection of Faf Du Plessis was crucial for Delhi Capitals because their star England batter Harry Brook has withdrawn from IPL 2025 due to some personal reasons. They needed someone like Faf to fill the void created by Brook’s departure. Brook has been banned from the IPL for two years due to his withdrawal decision. 

Delhi Capitals Squad for IPL 2025

Axar Patel (Captain), Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Mitchell Starc, KL Rahul, Jake Fraser-McGurk, T. Natarajan, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis (Vice-Captain), Mukesh Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Dushmantha Chameera, Donovan Ferreira, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari.

A 2025 IPL will mark a fresh start for the Delhi Capitals franchise. The duo of Axar Patel and Faf du Plessis will try to make a strong impact through their solid experience in this tournament. Whatever the result this is for sure that Delhi Capitals is looking as a strong contender to win their maiden TATA IPL 2025 title.