Chopra doubts Axar stays Delhi Capitals captain after Pant's return
Delhi Capitals go into the IPL 2027 off-season with a captaincy question, and Aakash Chopra has given it fresh fuel. The former India opener doesn't expect Axar Patel to be leading the side next year now that Rishabh Pant is back at the franchise. He admitted he has no idea who would take over instead.
The doubt follows a busy few months at the Capitals. In June the IPL confirmed a trade that sent Pant back to Delhi at a reduced fee of Rs 15 crore, down from the Rs 27 crore Lucknow Super Giants paid in the 2025 mega auction. Kuldeep Yadav went the other way to Lucknow. The official statement noted that Pant played 111 matches for Delhi between 2016 and 2024, the most by any player for the franchise. Pant had asked to be relieved of the Lucknow captaincy after a poor season. Across two seasons there he made only three scores of fifty or more in 28 innings.
The context for Chopra's view is Delhi's results under Axar. He took over as captain in 2025 after Pant left, and the team finished fifth that year. In 2026 they finished sixth with seven wins from 14 league games, and missed the playoffs again. Axar's own numbers for the franchise are solid: 1,403 runs and 78 wickets in the IPL. KL Rahul was the team's leading run-scorer in 2026 with 593, and his name has also come up in leadership talk. Any decision would have to fit Pant, Rahul and Axar into the same XI.
Chopra also questions Delhi's wider winter planning. He doubts the franchise is better off after letting Kuldeep go for Pant and then swapping T Natarajan for the young left-arm spinner Zeeshan Ansari. In his view Kuldeep is almost impossible to replace, and few spinners in the country compare. Delhi are now leaning on Axar and Vipraj Nigam in the spin department, with Ansari added.
The franchise itself has not signalled a change at the top. On October 19, amid chatter linking Axar with a swap for Hardik Pandya or a move to other teams, Delhi put out a video of the all-rounder. In it he spoke of the city as a second home. Co-owner Parth Jindal then shared the post with a message saying he couldn't wait to see Axar in red and blue and that the team had unfinished business. That isn't a formal announcement of the captaincy, but it reads as a clear sign that Axar is part of the plan.
Axar himself has also sounded relaxed about Pant's return. He welcomed his old captain, spoke of how they had always worked as equals, and noted that both are senior players. That points to a dressing room that may not need a captaincy change, even if the batting order and roles have to be reshuffled.
The leadership group is also changing around the players. Sourav Ganguly has been named head coach, replacing Hemang Badani, and Yuvraj Singh is joining the support staff. A new coach often reviews captaincy as well as selection, so the question is unlikely to go away until the franchise says something definitive.
The next dates matter. Franchises must submit their retained and released lists by November 15, and the mini-auction is scheduled for Goa in December. Those lists will show whether Delhi stick with the Axar-led set-up or rework the core.
For Indian fans the stakes extend beyond one franchise. Pant, Rahul and Axar are all part of India's white-ball and Test conversations, so how Delhi use them will shape their form and confidence. Chopra's view is only an opinion, and the franchise has leaned the other way. Unless Delhi announce otherwise, Axar remains the captain of record.