DC officially announces Rishabh Pant as captain for IPL 2024
Delhi Capitals (DC) have formally announced Rishabh Pant as captain for IPL 2024 on Tuesday, March 19. The southpaw will make his much-awaited comeback to competitive cricket in the coming season of IPL after missing action for around 15 months.
He also missed IPL 2023 during this period, forcing the DC management to appoint David Warner as captain. The Capitals missed Pant, the batter and captain dearly last year. They endured a tough season following poor performances in all departments, ending up in ninth position in the points table.
As Pant is now declared fit by the NCA to play IPL 2024, Delhi Capitals have handed over the reins to him for the season. The Delhi franchise made the official announcement on the matter through a post on their X handle.
You can watch it below:
"We missed him incredibly"- DC head coach Ricky Ponting on Rishabh Pant ahead of his comeback
Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting recently opened up on missing Rishabh Pant dearly last season. Speaking to reporters, Ricky Ponting stated, as quoted by India Today:
"We missed him incredibly last year. The whole tournament missed him. Rishabh brings so much energy to the team. He's got that smile on his face, he's hitting the ball as good as ever and he tends to lift all of his teammates around."
On changes in his coaching approach for IPL 2024, Ponting added:
"It's not a different approach, it's the same, but I'm going to be more intense with the way that I go about it this year. Every time I come here I talk about wanting to win the IPL and nothing changes there. I'm just going to talk about that a lot more this year."
Here is the schedule for the first five matches of DC in IPL 2024 (all timings are in IST):
March 23: Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali, 3:30 PM
March 28: Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Capitals at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, 7:30 PM
March 31: Delhi Capitals vs Chennai Super Kings at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam, 7:30 PM
April 3: Delhi Capitals vs Kolkata Knight Riders at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam, 7:30 PM
April 7: Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, 7:30 PM