Former India player Aakash Chopra has said that Mitchell Starc’s presence is one of the Delhi Capitals’ (DC) strengths ahead of IPL 2025. He also added that the veteran Australian seamer tends to bring out his best at the end of a tournament. Notably, DC acquired Starc for ₹11.75 crore at the IPL 2025 auction as well. The former KKR seamer picked up 17 wickets at an average of 26.11 in 13 innings in IPL 2024 as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Mitchell Starc is an X-factor. He raises his game when it comes to winning the tournament. He showed that by doing it in the playoffs last year. The likes of Mukesh Kumar, Mohit Sharma and Darshan Nalkande are also there, but they are betting heavily on Mitchell Starc. I like this team’s spin bowling a lot. Captain Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, they are an eight-over bank, and they are actually bankable players. Both pick up wickets and keep it tight as well. They also bowl in different stages of the game.”

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However, Aakash Chopra stated that the Delhi Capitals’ IPL 2025 squad has batters who can also adopt different approaches.

“They have a healthy mix of caution and aggression in the batting order. You will get Faf du Plessis opening with Jake Fraser-McGurk. He will surely play since he is the vice-captain now and Harry Brook is also not there. However, it means you might find KL Rahul at No. 3 and Abishek Porel may or may not be seen,” he said.

“Karun Nair might get a chance due to this. Tristan Stubbs was one of the finest finishers last year. Ashutosh Sharma was one of the finest finishers last year. Sameer Rizvi might also get a chance. Jake Fraser-McGurk, if he gets going, you know what he does. There is a lot of variety as they have both attacking and defensive players,” Aakash Chopra concluded.