New Delhi: Indian Premier League Franchise Delhi Capitals There was a fantastic two-day mega-auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where they grabbed attention by purchasing star Indian batsman KL Rahul.
The Delhi-based franchise, which retained Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel, struck a steal deal with Rahul, acquiring him for Rs 14 crore.
After two days of action on Monday, DC had a near-perfect team with a great mix of experience and youth. DC has made quite a few impressive purchases, bringing in the likes of Australian speedster Mitchell Starc and Englishman Harry Brook in the auction along with Rahul, but their strategy of picking India’s homegrown young guns has also turned out to be quite interesting.
Late in the second day of the auction, DC selected a large number of homegrown talent at low prices, representing an investment in its future.
And that credit goes to former India cricketer Vijay Bharadwaj, who joined the franchise as the head of its talent scouting wing in October.
Along with DC cricket director Venugopal Rao, who is from Andhra and an ardent follower of state cricket, Bharadwaj was instrumental in focusing on local talent while selecting lesser-known players for franchise trials, state leagues.
6 fringe players — Manvanth Kumar (30 Lakh), Madhav Tiwari (40 Lakh), Tripura Vijay (30 Lakhs), Ajay Mandal (30 Lakhs), Vipraj Nigam (50 Lakhs) and Darshan Nalkande (30 Lakhs) – all were picked by the franchise at base price as the franchise has hit the big time with local all-rounders.
Here’s a quick look at the ‘desi’ talent and how they have fared in the Indian domestic circuit.
Ajay Mandal (all-rounder)
Ajay Jadav Mandal from Madhya Pradesh has quite a decent experience in the Indian domestic circuit.
The 28-year-old represents Chattisgarh and made his First-Class debut in 2016.
The all-rounder is a left-handed batsman and is a slow and orthodox spinner.
Interestingly, Ajay was previously picked by Chennai Super Kings but was not given a chance in the playing XI.
Before the 2025 auction, Ajay had scores of 69, 66, 11*, 64, 21, 69, 57*, 2, 51*, 21, 63, batting at Nos. 7 and 8 and picking some decent performances as well. . Number of wickets in Ranji Trophy.
Ajay played in 39 first-class games for Chhattisgarh, scoring a total of 1,822 runs and taking 124 wickets. With the bat, Ajay scored 241* in Ranji with best figures of 7/7.
Ajay also featured in 30 List A and 42 T20s, scoring 852 runs and taking 71 wickets.
Darshan Nalkande (bowler)
Skiddy pacer Darshan Nalkande was born in Wardha, Maharashtra and has a lot of experience in domestic cricket, including the IPL.
The 26-year-old plays for Vidarbha and has played six matches for Ranji. To this end, Darshan has been part of the Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings set-ups in the past.
Although Darshan has not played for Punjab Kings, he has played in six IPL matches for Titans in the last three years, picking up six wickets.
In List A cricket, Darshan has 49 wickets in 29 matches and in T20s, he has 73 scalps in 47 matches.
Darshan had previously also been selected in the India U19 squad for the Youth Asia Cup, but failed to make the World Cup squad.
Tripurana Vijay (all-rounder)
Born in Tekkali, Andhra Pradesh, young Tripurana Vijay has made steady progress in Indian domestic cricket.
The 23-year-old represents Andhra and will make his Ranji debut in 2022.
The Tripurana has seven first-class games to his name and the batting all-rounder has 150 runs and 16 wickets to his name.
In the Mushtaq Ali opener this season, Offi took 4 for 8 against Nagaland.
Tripurana also played six List A’s and the same number of T20s, scoring a total of 54 runs and taking 13 wickets.
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Manvanth Kumar (all-rounder)
Karnataka’s strong performance in the Maharaja Trophy helped Manvanth Kumar secure a contract with DC in the 2025 auction.
The 20-year-old from Mysore first took up cricket at the age of 12 and has enjoyed success in state cricket ever since.
In the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Maharaja Trophy, Manvanth picked 22 and 16 wickets respectively for Hubli Tigers and was also the Purple Cap holder before last season.
Manvanth is yet to be a part of the Karnataka state team, but he has made some decent noise in the T20 tournament, which has helped him get on DC’s radar.
Madhav Tiwari (all-rounder)
Among the unrestricted players, DC has made an interesting purchase in the form of Madhav Tiwari, who is considered one of the most promising desi quicks of recent times.
At a base price of Rs 30 lakh, Mumbai Indians also showed some interest in Madhav at the auction along with DC, lifting the paddle once before the latter sealed him for Rs 40 lakh.
A neat striker with the bat, Madhav has been making headlines for the past year with his bowling across Madhya Pradesh.
The 21-year-old was born in Gwalior and represents Bhopal Leopards in the MP League.
Vipraj Nigam (all-rounder)
20-year-old Leggie Vipraj Nigam made his first-class debut for Uttar Pradesh in October this season.
Before being selected by DC in the auction, Vipraj had taken 13 wickets against Bengal, Haryana and Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy.
He also had a very impressive UP T20 League with the ball for Lucknow Falcons.
