Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings will look to end their 18-year wait for a TATA IPL title when this season begins. Irfan Pathan and Aakash Chopra shared their thoughts on what has hampered DC and PBKS in the past, and which team looks stronger on paper in 2026 to finally break the jinx.
Aakash Chopra highlighted the challenges that have plagued teams like DC and PBKS in the past:
“Anybody who has won multiple trophies, even Gujarat Titans, who reached the finals twice and won a trophy in their first two years, you will find that consistency and stability allowed them to succeed. Where there is no success, teams keep chopping and changing in a bid to find it, thinking that once they succeed, they will become stable. Then it becomes a chicken-and-egg situation. That has been the issue with both, PBKS and DC. One team has had 15 captains, the other has had 17. So, if you want to change your present, stability is non-negotiable. We have often seen that the better teams arrive at their best combination in the first or second match itself, while teams that keep chopping and changing, using around 22 out of 25 players, finish closer to the bottom than the top.”
On DC’s improved show in the auctions:
“IPL is designed in a way that gives you the chance to reboot. After every three years, there is a big auction coming up. Kudos to Delhi, because since 2019, they have consistently been there or thereabouts, and made the final in 2020. The women’s team has reached the final in all four WPL seasons. They have got their auctions right and this year, I feel they have a very strong unit. So, fingers crossed that this could be their year.”
On the team that looks better on paper, between PBKS and DC:
“On paper, I think Delhi is a more complete unit, with enough backups for almost every slot except the two spinners, but you won’t find backups for Axar Patel and Kuldeep even in the entire country.”
Irfan Pathan spoke about the challenge DC faced with identifying talent during the early 2010s:
“I was with Punjab and Delhi for three years each. When I was at Delhi, Eric Simmons, who is now with CSK as the bowling coach, was the coach, and there was an effort to bring stability. But when you let go of players like AB de Villiers, and you had Andre Russell, starting from scratch is not easy. I played alongside Russell in the same dressing room and there were a lot of discussions about giving him more opportunities, but they just couldn’t find a place for him consistently in the XI. So, identification of talent is very important, and I feel Delhi used to fall short in that area.”
On how leadership has made a key difference for PBKS from TATA IPL 2025 onwards:
“Leadership has played a huge role in Punjab’s turnaround. You win half the IPL at the auction table. Big purses don’t necessarily mean you will always get what you want, but they did, and they reached the final. Even in the mini-auction, they took bold but important calls, like letting go of players who were not performing, such as Glenn Maxwell. They were a bit unfortunate with the Josh Inglis situation, given he would miss most of the season, but then you see another team going after him for a huge price. In that respect, they are taking a lot of right decisions. Look at the backup players. In the past, Punjab struggled with that when the focus was entirely on building the first XI, but now you see all-rounders like Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen and Marcus Stoinis, along with a young Indian batting core. Apart from that, they went all-out for Shreyas Iyer after deciding he would be the Captain. So, there is clarity of thought, and I feel Punjab have started to move in the right direction.”
