England legend Kevin Pietersen won’t be mentoring the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the IPL 2026 season. Taking to social media, he said he didn’t have the time to commit the time required for the job, and so,
he would instead return to his role as a commentator and broadcaster in the ‘world’s best league’.
DC are now in the second year of a two-year cycle of running under the GMR Group ownership. The GMR Group and the JSW Group co-own the team and have made a deal to switch control of the franchise biannually. The former had brought Pietersen on board for the last season. The Axar Patel-led side finished fifth in the points table last year, after their promising start fizzled out in the second half.
“I cannot be a mentor for the Delhi Capitals in this IPL season. I cannot commit to the time that the job requires. Best wishes to all the players for this season! ❤️ However, I’ll see you back in the commentary box! IPL is the world’s best league and I can’t wait to see all of you soon! 🙏🏽” Pitersen wrote in Hindi, one of India’s national languages, on X (formerly Twitter).
Pietersen was in the spotlight last year for taking a brief mid-season holiday to the Maldives with his family. He departed on April 6, shortly after DC’s victory over Chennai Super Kings, and missed the team’s away match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
His vacation sparked a ton of criticism on social media, plus some light-hearted banter among players, with KL Rahul jokingly mocking his ‘mentor duties’ during a practice session. Pietersen returned to the squad on April 13 for their home game against Mumbai.
DC will kick off their campaign against Lucknow Super Giants on April 1.
Delhi Capitals squad for IPL 2026: Nitish Rana, Abishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel (c), Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Sameer Rizvi, T Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mukesh Kumar, David Miller, Ben Duckett, Auqib Nabi, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parikh, Prithvi Shaw, Kyle Jamieson.
