Kevin Pietersen, a former England cricket player, has been named the Delhi Capitals’ new season-long mentor ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League. Using their DC Fan Sabha App, the announcement was made on Thursday, February 27.
Alongside the 44-year-old will be cricket director Venugopal Rao, bowling coach Munaf Patel, assistant coach Matthew Mott, and head coach Hemang Badani. For the upcoming season, the team has not yet announced its captain.
For the first time, Kevin Pietersen, who last participated in the IPL in 2016, will be coaching.
He played for Delhi (previously known as the Daredevils) and three other IPL clubs from 2009 to 2016, and he even captained the team 17 times. Before commanding the Delhi Daredevils for the whole 2014 season, when they finished bottom in the rankings with two victories in 14 games, he briefly captained Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the 2009 IPL.
Check the post below:
Just In: Kevin Pietersen is the new mentor of Delhi Capitals fr IPL-2025 #IPL2025
— Gaurav Gupta (@toi_gauravG) February 27, 2025
Pietersen also captained England in 15 international matches, including a two-match Test series in India in 2008.
Pietersen has maintained communication with Kiran Kumar Grandhi, chairman of GMR, co-owners of the Delhi Capitals franchise, since he captained Delhi in the 2014 Indian Premier League. He facilitated the negotiation of a landmark agreement between GMR and Hampshire County Cricket Club in September of the previous year. In 2024, Pietersen and Grandhi attended the Utilita Bowl to witness England compete against Australia in the T20I.
In addition to this, Pietersen has participated in the Big Bash League (BBL), Pakistan Super League (PSL), and Caribbean Premier League (CPL). He participated in 200 T20 matches, accumulating 5695 runs with a strike rate of 137 and an average of 33.89.
Following the release of the majority of their high-priced players and retaining only Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, and Abishek Porel, DC, which has reached the IPL final only once in its history, concluded the 2024 tournament in sixth place and entered the previous year’s auction with the largest budget among all ten teams. They subsequently augmented their roster to incorporate KL Rahul, Harry Brook, Faf du Plessis, and Mitchell Starc.
The Dubai Capitals have secured the ILT20 title, marking the inaugural trophy for a Capitals team in both men’s and women’s events globally, under the guidance of coaches Badani, Rao, and Munaf, and Indian support staff.