New Delhi, Feb 27: Delhi Capitals (DC) have announced that former England captain Kevin Pietersen will be the side’s mentor for the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise made the announcement via their fan engagement app on Thursday.

Pietersen joins the DC coaching staff comprising head coach Hemang Badani, director of cricket Venugopal Rao, bowling coach Munaf Patel and assistant coach Matthew Mott. This will be the first time Pietersen will take up a support staff role with a cricket team, especially with his post-playing career comprising mainly of commentary stints, including in the IPL.

Pietersen had turned out for DC, then called Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2012 and 2014, amassing 305 and 294 runs respectively. He even captained the franchise in 17 games, with DC finishing at the bottom of the points table after winning just two wins in 14 matches in 2014.

A veteran of 200 T20s with 5,695 runs, Pietersen appeared in 36 IPL matches scoring 1001 runs across his stints with the Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and the Pune franchise. The South African-born player, who captained England between 2008-2009, won the Player of the Series award for his remarkable performance in the 2010 ICC T20 World Cup, which helped England secure their maiden ICC trophy.

In his illustrious international career, Pietersen played 104 Tests, scoring 8,181 runs, and 136 ODIs, amassing 4,440 runs.

Interestingly, when the GMR Group acquired a 100 per cent stake in owning the Hampshire County Cricket Club, the team Pietersen played from 2005-10, for close to 120 million pound in September last year, it came to light that he was the one who played a part in the deal to happen, due to him being mutual friends with GMR chairman Kiran Kumar Grandhi, and Rod Bransgrove, the chair of club’s parent company.

Parth Jindal, Co-owner of Delhi Capitals, said, “KP was arguably one of the best modern-day batters, and having him in our team is a valuable addition. We look forward to seeing him apply his knowledge and help our players drive towards our objectives. My best wishes to him in this new role.”

Earlier this week, Delhi Capitals also announced the appointment of renowned and highly successful coach Matthew Mott as their assistant coach. Mott coached the England men’s team to victory in the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup and previously spent seven record-breaking years with Australia’s women’s team. His tenure included two T20 World Cup titles, one ODI World Cup, four Ashes series wins, and a remarkable record 26-match winning streak in ODIs.

DC is one of the two teams alongside defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders who are yet to name their captain for IPL 2025.

Rawalpindi, Feb 27: The toss for the Pakistan-Bangladesh Group A match in the 2025 Champions Trophy has been delayed due to rain at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

Both Bangladesh and Pakistan, the tournament hosts’ and defending champions, are out of the reckoning to enter the semi-finals, making this clash a dead rubber. Interestingly, the South Africa-Australia Group B match on Tuesday was also washed out due to rain in Rawalpindi.

It has been drizzling in Rawalpindi for the last 24 hours, meaning that there was always a scare of a washout on the Pakistan-Bangladesh game. An official inspection time was scheduled at 2pm, but rain coming back with a steady nature meant it never happened, and the toss was officially delayed.

Pakistan and Bangladesh had come into Thursday’s match with a hope to sign off from the 2025 Champions Trophy on a positive note. Both teams had suffered defeats to New Zealand and India, respectively, where all three facets of their game didn’t click in a desired manner, though Bangladesh’s bowling line-up was better placed as compared to Pakistan.

If rain eventually has the final say in Rawalpindi, Pakistan and Bangladesh might see their respective 2025 Champions Trophy campaigns end on a rainy note. “I can’t predict Pindi weather. It is not looking great. We might get some game out it, no one knows,” said Pakistan assistant coach Azhar Mahmood to broadcasters.

Squads-

Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Bangladesh: Nazmul Hossain Shanto (c), Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan, Tawhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Jaker Ali Anik, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Parvez Hossain Emon, Nasum Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Nahid Rana.

Lahore, Feb 27: Head Coach Trott lauded Afghanistan’s win over England in the Champions Trophy to keep their semifinal hopes alive but wants his team to immediately shift their focus to the Australia showdown, where a win will seal their place in the knockouts.

Ibrahim Zadran’s scintillating 177, followed by Azmatullah Omarzai’s five-wicket haul, helped Afghanistan land a knockout blow to England with an eight-run win in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

Having shocked the world after reaching the semis in last year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Jonathan Trott’s side are now just one win away from reaching the final four yet again.

“I’m going to make sure when they wake up tomorrow, they enjoy tonight, (but) wake up tomorrow ready for Australia. As soon as they wake up tomorrow, the focus is on Australia,” Trott told the media after their nail-biting victory over England.

Afghanistan’s upcoming match against Australia is now, effectively, a quarterfinal, with the winner gaining undeniable semifinal qualification and the loser packing their bags. But, the head coach admitted that Afghanistan needs to be well prepared, as the Aussies are not going to take his side lightly.

“Australia aren’t going to take us lightly. So, we’ve got to be prepared. In the past, perhaps people would have seen the fixture and thought it was a little bit easier than playing a historic Test nation. But in this format, in these conditions, I don’t see that.

“Since I’ve been coach we’ve played against Australia three times and we’ve been in the game each of those games. So, we should take a lot of confidence from that. And I think certainly what happened in the World Cup, T20 World Cup, and I say this to the players as well, that Afghanistan’s never going to be taken lightly ever again.

“I see every game that we play is going to be competitive, and every game we go into I expect to win,” Trott added.

Chasing 326 in what was a must-win game for both teams in Group B, England had been reduced to 313/9 at the end of the penultimate over. Then, Omarzai, who earlier trapped the big fish Joe Root (120) who was keeping England in the hunt for a mammoth total, removed Adil Rashid in the final over to close a memorable win for the Afghans.

“There’s a resilience to them. I think if you add to some cricketing experience and cricketing match awareness with regards to batting in particular, with regards to how you pace the innings… it’s not always down to one person.

“We saw Ibrahim, the way that he’s done today; we’ve seen Gurbaz do it in the past… We have Gulbadin at eight at the moment, who can come in and change games. So that self-belief is important and it starts within, but it’s also quite infectious and it spreads within the squad,” the Afghanistan coach said.

Afghanistan will take on Australia on Friday in a must-win encounter at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.