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The current reports have claimed that the Director of Cricket for the Delhi Capitals (DC), Sourav Ganguly is unlikely to be appointed as the head coach of the franchise as they are in search of someone a little more aggressive in following the circuit.

A couple of days ago, the DC parted ways with their head coach Ricky Ponting, who is the two-time World Cup-winning captain for Australia. As a result, the franchise is looking for a replacement in the position after seven seasons before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.

They will also have the opportunity to revamp their team combination with a mega auction on the cards. Sourav Ganguly informed his wish to get the position of Ponting.

Sourav Ganguly out of the race

‘I am planning for the next IPL. I want DC to win this time. I will speak to the management about appointing an Indian as the head coach.’ Sourav Ganguly expressed.

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Sourav Ganguly also stretched on bringing new players from world cricket, just like he wanted to have the recent debutant of England- the wicket-keeper batter Jamie Smith in the team.

‘I want to give a shot as the head coach. I will bring in some new players. Wanted to bring in Jamie Smith from England.’ Sourav Ganguly noted. ‘I wanted to test him out in Delhi’s SA20 franchise. He wanted to come in but the schedules did not match.’

DC is one of the three teams in the IPL- along with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings to not win an IPL title, as their best finish in this tournament was being runners-up in 2020. The recent few seasons have not been decent for them, which has resulted in the change of coaching staff.

DC hunts for someone similar to Gautam Gambhir to take charge

The reports have claimed that the Capitals want someone like the new India head coach Gautam Gambhir to take their charge, as they are not interested in Ganguly, who has a lot of things for the franchise already as the ‘Director of Cricket’.

‘Ganguly already has a lot of things on his plate – planning multiple things for the franchise as the Director of Cricket. The team needs a very hands-on coach who follows the circuit very aggressively.’ A close source of the team told to News 18. ‘Like Gautam Gambhir does. It’s no surprise that he has been so successful as a mentor.’

Since making their way into the final of the 2020 season, DC has failed to qualify for the playoffs for the next four seasons, as they ended at the sixth position in the IPL 2024.

‘The management doesn’t want a stop-gap arrangement for the head coach position as it’s the season right after the mega auction as the new cycle gets underway.’ The source continued.

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The reports also claimed that a meeting is scheduled to take place between the higher-ups at DC, at the end of the Major League Cricket (MLC) in the United States of America. They have also started their planning for the retention list before the mega auction of the next IPL.

It’s likely that the three Indian players- Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Rishabh Pant- who were part of the winning team of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, will get retained. The aggressive young opening batter from Australia, Jake Fraser McGurk could also make it into the list of retention, after a successful season with DC in 2024.