Delhi Capitals are quietly looking like IPL 2026's smartest team so far
It is easy to miss what Delhi Capitals are doing this season. Royal Challengers Bengaluru posted the highest total of IPL 2026 over the weekend and Rajasthan Royals are sitting pretty thanks to a thumping net run rate. The noise is around them. Meanwhile, in the background, DC have also won every game they have played.
Two matches and two wins is a small sample. I get that. But the way Delhi have done it tells you something more interesting than the result column.
The Rizvi factor
Sameer Rizvi was meant to be a useful middle-order option. He has instead been the entire batting card. After 70 not out off 47 balls in the season opener, the 22-year-old followed it up with 90 off 51 against Mumbai Indians, the kind of innings that flips a match and reframes a player's reputation in one afternoon. Sitting on top of the Orange Cap leaderboard in the first week of the season was probably not on his pre-tournament wishlist, but he is there now.
Plenty of young Indian batters have had a hot week and disappeared. Rizvi already feels different because of how he has had to score his runs. Both of his big innings have come with DC under pressure rather than coasting. That is the marker I trust.
A side that has not even fired yet
Here is the part Delhi fans should be cheerful about. KL Rahul, Pathum Nissanka and Nitish Rana have all started slowly. The senior names at the top of the order have not yet contributed in any meaningful way, and DC have still won twice. Imagine what this batting line-up looks like once Rahul finds his rhythm and Nissanka gets going.
The bowling has been functional rather than spectacular, but functional is enough when the run-rate calculations are not getting away from you. Capitals have controlled both of their chases without needing the death overs to turn into a slugfest.
The next two weeks will tell us more
Wednesday's game against Gujarat Titans, with Shubman Gill expected back, is the kind of fixture you would mark down as a win for an in-form side. The trickier tests come after that, when DC start running into the teams who have already proved their credentials. If they can take this start and convert it into five wins from seven by the back end of April, the conversation about who the early favourites are will need a serious rewrite.
Right now, almost nobody is talking about Delhi Capitals as a title threat. That feels like a mistake.
Related Tags:
Cricket Updates
