These are the IPL sides that are expected to announce new skippers for the upcoming season that will commence next year
1. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)
The Bengaluru-based franchise will be hoping to lift their first-ever IPL title in the upcoming. They made a big decision ahead of the mega auction by not retaining their skipper last season, Faf du Plessis. It is expected that star player Virat Kohli will be leading RCB next season, who was retained for a whopping INR 21 crore alongside youngsters Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal.
2. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
KKR dominated throughout the 2024 IPL campaign and ended up winning the final defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad to lift their 3rd IPL title. However, ahead of the mega auction, the franchise made the surprising decision of releasing Shreyas Iyer, the player who captained the side in the title-winning season. It will be interesting to see who gets chosen as KKR’s skipper for next season.
3. Punjab Kings (PBKS)
The franchise which is yet to win their first-ever IPL title, made the baffling decision of only retaining 2 uncapped Indian players ahead of the mega auction. The player who captained the side last season was Shikhar Dhawan, however he announced his retirement earlier this year, which clearly hurt the franchise’s plans. They will enter the mega auction with a purse of over INR 100 crore.
4. Delhi Capitals (DC)
The Delhi-based franchise made the shocking decision of releasing last season’s skipper Rishabh Pant ahead of the mega auction. They aren’t expected to use the Right to Match (RTM) card on Pant either as reportedly, the player wants to enter the auction. Though DC did retain the likes of Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel, none of them are expected to lead the team in the coming season.
5. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)
The Lucknow-based franchise made the tough decision of releasing their last season’s skipper KL Rahul ahead of the mega auction. The franchise did end up retaining 5 players namely – Nicholas Pooran, Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan and Ayush Badoni. Pooran is rumoured to become the captain of the franchise for next season, however no official announcement has been made yet.
