Delhi Capitals (DC) have pulled a shocker the day after the IPL 2026 retentions, with the auction being held at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Capitals have surprised the fans with a very revealed post of KL Rahul, dropping a hint about a change in the leadership.
After they missed out on both Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant at the 2025 mega auction, the Delhi-based team made Axar Patel the captain, and he had a good start with the Indian all-rounder. But, DC’s IPL 2025 campaign lost its way in the later part.
Delhi Capitals cause captaincy havoc by revealing KL Rahul post
After being eliminated from the playoffs by a narrow margin last season, the change in the captaincy is very likely for the Delhi Capitals. The team posted a video on X (formerly Twitter), featuring KL Rahul, that went viral on social media.
This video started with Rahul’s jersey and then showed various things like training sessions, photos, and fan interactions.
But, it was DC’s caption that has been seen in multiple ways, as they wrote: “Picture abhi baaki hai, Dilliwalon 🎬💙.” This made a lot of people speculate if the Capitals are going to name Rahul as their new captain right after the retentions for the IPL 2026 season have been announced.
KL Rahul discloses that the IPL captaincy was a strenuous task for him but still enjoyed it.
Yet, the recent declaration made by Rahul indicates that he has no plans of getting into a similar situation again with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) where he had a fallout with owner Sanjiv Goenka, and is now playing in the first Test of the two-match series against South Africa at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
KL Rahul told Humans of Bombay: “As a captain in the IPL, the number of meetings that were required, the number of reviews that were needed, and the number of things that had to be communicated at the ownership level, that’s what I found hard. All of it is really energy draining.”
“So, I realized at the end of IPL that I am more mentally and physically drained than after playing 10 months of international cricket.”
The Indian player further clarified, “There are so many factors here. Coaches and captains, you’re just constantly being asked a lot of questions, and after a point, it almost feels like you’re being questioned as to why you made this change. Why did Jatin play in the XI? Why is it that the opposition got 200, and we couldn’t even get 120? Why are their bowlers getting more spin?”
In the meantime, the Capitals have kept a total of 16 players and have let go of 6 players along with one trade deal prior to the IPL 2026 auction.
Delhi Capitals Retained Players:
Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana (traded in from RR)
Released Players:
Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Sediqullah Atal, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Manvanth Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira (traded out)