Hemang Badani has emerged as the front-runner to take over the coaching duties at Delhi Capitals after they parted ways with Ricky Ponting. Badani has worked as a fielding coach and scout for the Sunrisers Hyderabad team for a couple of seasons but has not played the role of head coach in the cash-rich league. 2011 World Cup-winning star Munaf Patel is also in contention to be part of Delhi’s support staff.
According to a report in a news agency PTI, DC are looking to appoint home-grown coaches and not in the mood to appoint another foreign head coach after Ricky Ponting. Badani and Munaf are currently leading the race, with the latter being considered for the bowling coach role.
“DC management is looking at quality home-grown coaches and Hemang and Munaf’s names have cropped up. A final decision is yet to be taken but in case of Munaf, it could be bowling coach’s job,” an IPL source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
On Badani’s name coming up as the head coach, it could be a case of change of management for the next two years where GMR, one of the co-owners, the other being JSW, would be running the show.
The two co-owners are believed to have an agreement on micro-managing the team for two years each at a time.
Badani has played 40 ODIs and four Tests for India but has not played any T20I. Meanwhile, an ODI hundred against Australia during the epic 2001 bilateral series was the highlight of his career.
Delhi Capitals have not won an IPL title since the tournament’s inception and reached the final only once, in 2020. If Badani gets the big job, he will be under immense pressure to end their title drought.
Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav likely retentions for DC
The IPL Players’ retention deadline is also around the corner and the report further suggested that the Capitals are considering retaining only three players – skipper Rishabh Pant (18 crore), all-rounder Axar Patel ( ₹14 crore) and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav ( ₹11 crore).
Since five retentions would cost ₹75 crore, it is believed that Jake-Fraser McGurk, last year’s breakaway star, and South African Tristan Stubbs, two of their major foreign contributors, could be picked with the Right To Match (RTM) cards if their price tags are within the team’s budget.
