Kevin Pietersen has confirmed he will not mentor the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2026 due to time commitments.
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen will not serve as a mentor for the Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2026 season. He confirmed the decision on social media, citing a lack of time for the demanding role. Pietersen will instead return to broadcasting and commentary during the tournament.
Delhi Capitals continue in the second year of their 2-year ownership cycle. The franchise operates under a rotating arrangement between the GMR Group and the JSW Group. The GMR Group managed team operations last season and had appointed Pietersen as mentor.
Pietersen wished the squad success for IPL 2026. He also confirmed his presence in the commentary box for the upcoming tournament.
“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 languages, on X (formerly Twitter).
Notably, Delhi Capitals, led by Axar Patel, finished fifth in the points table in the previous IPL campaign. The team started strongly but lost momentum during the second half of the season. This year, Delhi 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.
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