The Delhi Capitals team has named former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen as its new season-long mentor ahead of the 2025 Indian Premier League. The DC Fan Sabha App was used to make the announcement on Thursday, February 27.
The 44-year-old will work alongside bowling coach Munaf Patel, head coach Hemang Badani, assistant coach Matthew Mott, and cricket director Venugopal Rao. The team has not yet announced its captain for the upcoming campaign.
Kevin Pietersen will be coaching for the first time; he last participated in the IPL in 2016. He played for three IPL clubs between 2009 and 2016, including Delhi (formerly known as the Daredevils), and he even captained the team 17 times. He briefly captained Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the 2009 IPL before taking charge of the Delhi Daredevils for the whole 2014 season, which saw them finish last in the rankings with only two victories in 14 games.
Kevin Pietersen also captained England in 15 international matches, including a two-game Test series in India in 2008.
Since he captained Delhi in the 2014 Indian Premier League, Pietersen has maintained communication with Kiran Kumar Grandhi, chairman of GMR, the co-owners of the Delhi Capitals team. In September of last year, he helped negotiate a landmark deal between Hampshire County Cricket Club and GMR. Pietersen and Grandhi also attended the 2024 T20I match between England and Australia at the Utilita Bowl.
In addition, Kevin Pietersen has played in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Pakistan Super League (PSL), and Big Bash League (BBL). He participated in 200 Twenty20 matches and amassed 5695 runs at an average of 33.89 and a strike rate of 137.
DC, who have only ever advanced to the IPL final once, finished sixth in the 2024 tournament and went into the auction last year with the biggest purse of all ten teams after cutting most of their expensive players and keeping only Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, and Abishek Porel. They later added Mitchell Starc, Faf du Plessis, Harry Brook, and KL Rahul to their lineup.
Under the guidance of Badani, Rao, and Munaf, their Indian support staff, the Dubai Capitals just won the ILT20 title, the first trophy won by a Capitals team in men’s or women’s events globally.
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