Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has been appointed Delhi Capitals’ mentor for IPL 2025. The 44-year-old will join Hemang Badani (head coach), Matthew Mott (assistant coach), Munaf Patel (bowling coach) and Venugopal Rao (director of cricket) in the DC backroom. The franchise, which made the announcement on its app, is yet to name a captain for the upcoming season.
This will be Pietersen’s first coaching assignment in the IPL. He last played in the league in 2016. “It’s an exciting opportunity to step into this new role as a mentor for the Capitals,” he said in a DC press release. “And I’m really looking forward to joining the squad, working closely with the boys, and doing everything I can to help us win that ultimate prize.”
Pietersen played for three IPL franchises for five seasons from 2009, including Delhi (then called Daredevils), and had even captained 17 times. After leading Royal Challengers Bengaluru briefly in IPL 2009, he captained Daredevils during a full season in 2014, when they finished at the bottom of the table with two wins in 14 games.
Pietersen also captained England across 15 internationals, including a two-match Test series in India in 2008.
Since captaining Delhi in IPL 2014, Pietersen has maintained a personal relationship with Kiran Kumar Grandhi, chairman of GMR, the co-owners of the DC franchise. In September last year, Pietersen had helped broker a landmark deal between GMR and Hampshire county cricket club. Pietersen and Grandhi also attended England’s T20I against Australia at the Utilita Bowl together in 2024.
“I’ve got incredible memories of representing the Delhi franchise in the IPL, and I’ve been able to maintain that passion for the team even as a broadcaster over the years. I shared the field with Venu (Venugopal Rao) during the 2012 season, and it’s great to be reconnecting with him as we begin a new chapter at this amazing franchise.”
Outside of the IPL, Pietersen has featured in the Big Bash League (BBL), Pakistan Super League (PSL) and Caribbean Premier League (CPL). Overall, he played 200 T20s, scoring 5695 runs at an average of 33.89 and strike rate of just under 137.
DC, who have only ever reached the final of the IPL once in all these years finished sixth in IPL 2024 and went into the auction last year with the biggest purse among all the ten teams after letting go of most of their big-ticket players and retaining only Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel. They then added star players including KL Rahul, Harry Brook, Faf du Plessis and Mitchell Starc to their roster.
Their Indian support staff – Badani, Rao and Munaf – had recently coached Dubai Capitals to the ILT20 title, the first trophy won by a Capitals side in men’s or women’s tournaments anywhere in the world.
Content Source: www.espncricinfo.com