Sourav Ganguly To Replace Ricky Ponting As DC's Head Coach? Ex-India Captain Provides Big Update

The Delhi Capitals took to X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday (July 13) to confirm the news of former Australian captain Ricky Ponting leaving the franchise as the head coach. The 49-year-old Ponting, who won two ODI World Cup titles as captain of the Australian men’s cricket team, was head coach of DC since the 2018 season, but despite being in charge of the franchise for seven seasons in a row, he failed to win one title. In fact, only once did DC reach the IPL final during Ponting’s era, and in the last three seasons, it even struggled to qualify for the playoffs.

Ponting’s departure from the franchise was confirmed much before the official announcement after former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly told Bengali newspaper Aajkaal that his former Australian counterpart has no results to show. He even dropped a big hint about the possible replacement of Ponting at the Delhi Capitals by saying that he wants to win the IPL with the Delhi Capitals.

“I have to plan for next year’s IPL. I want to win the IPL for the Delhi Capitals once. The mega auction is next year, and hence I have started planning from now on. Let me break the news. Ricky Ponting will not be the head coach of the Delhi Capitals. Geoffery Boycott was right, as Ponting has not been able to take the franchise forward in the past 7 years. I have to speak with the franchise and ask them to look at Indian coaches.I will be the head coach. Let’s see how I perform,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly was associated with the Rishabh Pant-led side as Director of Cricket in the IPL 2024. In the 17th edition of the world’s richest franchise cricket league, the Delhi Capitals finished sixth in the league table and failed to reach the playoffs for the third season in a row.

Ponting’s record as head coach

Ponting joined the Delhi Capitals as head coach in 2018 after already winning the IPL title as head coach of the Mumbai Indians in 2015. During Ponting’s era, Delhi qualified for the IPL final in 2020 for the first and only time in history but failed to win the title. In 2021, the Delhi Capitals topped the points table but failed to reach the final after losing both Qualifier matches played against the Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders.