Munaf Patel has become the latest addition to the new-look coaching staff at the Delhi Capitals (DC). The 41-year-old has been named as the bowling coach of the franchise. He joins the duo of Hemang Badani who is the new head coach and Venugopal Rao who is the director of cricket.
Delhi Capitals took to their social media to confirm the news. They welcomed Patel to their setup with a collage of his pictures.
It was six years ago that the Gujarat-born pacer bid adieu to competitive cricket. He played for India across five years, spanning from 2006 to 2011. He featured in a total of 13 Tests, 70 ODIs and three T20Is. Munaf ended with 35 scalps in the longest format while he took 90 wickets in the two white-ball formats combined.
Munaf Patel was a part of the Indian team which won the 2011 World Cup under MS Dhoni. He returned with 11 wickets in eight games at an economy rate of 5.36.
In the IPL, Patel has represented three franchises. He was a part of Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the first three seasons. He took 14 wickets in RR’s title-winning campaign in 2008 before taking 16 scalps in 2009. In 2011 and 2012 combined, he returned with 37 wickets for Mumbai Indians (MI). He played just four games in the 2013 edition for MI which they eventually won. His last IPL stint was in 2017 when he played a couple of games for Gujarat Lions.
After retiring from domestic cricket in 2018, the Gujarat seamer featured in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) in 2020. He played four matches for Kandy Tuskers and took three scalps.
This will be Munaf’s first proper coaching stint since he retired. He’s been a part of a few Legends League Cricket tournaments recently.
The 41-year-old replaces James Hopes as the bowling coach at Delhi Capitals. The 2020 IPL finalists overhauled their coaching setup which was led by Ricky Ponting back in July.
Delhi Capitals will be on the lookout for a new captain.
When the retentions list was announced, there was a major surprise with Delhi Capitals releasing Rishabh Pant. They retained the spin duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav along South African hitter Tristan Stubbs. Abishek Porel was the uncapped player that was retained by DC. Thus, they might well be on the hunt for a new captain.
Delhi Capitals have a purse of INR 73 crore going into the IPL mega auction for the 2025 season. That is the third-most for any team currently.
