Bad news for Axar Patel’s Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2026, after Pat Cummins, Sam Curran and Nathan Ellis, suffer Rs 117500000 blow due to…

Delhi Capitals will open their campaign in the IPL 2026 season against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium on April 1.

Australia pacer Mitchell Starc will miss start of IPL 2026 for Delhi Capitals. (Photo: IANS)

IPL 2026: GMR Group and JSW Sports co-owned Delhi Capitals were highly unlucky as they missed out on a Playoffs berth in IPL 2025 season in spite of being at the top of the table midway through the season. Ahead of the IPL 2026 season, Delhi Capitals have already been dealt a bad news with their star pacer Mitchell Starc set to miss the start of the season.

The Australian left-arm pacer, retained for Rs 11.75 crore by DC ahead of IPL 2026 season, will miss the start of the IPL 2026 season to manage his workload in the T20 league on the instructions of Cricket Australia. CA are taking a cautious approach for their star players with the Test side set to play up to 21 games in a 12-month period, including tours of South Africa, India and England. After that they will be defending their ODI World Cup title in Africa in late 2027.

Starc featured in all five of the Ashes Tests for Australia as well as the back end of the Big Bash League earlier this year. He was not part of the T20 World Cup 2026 squad having retired from the format last year.

Not only Starc, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins, Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Josh Hazlewood will also be joining their teams late in the IPL 2026 season. Apart from this pacer Nathan Ellis has been ruled out his stint with MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings while SRH all-rounder Jack Edwards has also been ruled out due to foot injury.

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Starc claimed 14 wickets in 11 matches in the IPL 2025 season with DC, including his maiden five-wicket haul in the Indian Premier League. Overall, he has claimed 65 wickets in 52 matches in his IPL career.

The 36-year-old pacer retired from the T20I format of the game with 79 wickets in 65 matches at an average of 23.81. In Starc’s absence, Delhi Capitals could utilize South Africa pacer Lungi Ngidi as their overseas fast bowler. Ngidi was bought for Rs 2 crore at the IPL 2026 mini auction.

Axar Patel’s DC also have other pace bowling options like Jammu and Kashmir star Auqib Nabi, bought for Rs 8.4 crore, New Zealand all-rounder Kyle Jamieson and Sri Lanka pacer Dushmantha Chameera.

Delhi Capitals will begin their IPL 2026 campaign in Lucknow against Rishabh Pant’s Lucknow Super Giants on April 1. They will face five-time winners Mumbai Indians in their first home game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on April 4.

Lockie Ferguson to also miss first seven game of the season

Apart from Starc, IPL 2025 finalists Punjab Kings will also miss the services of New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson, who only managed to play in 4 games last season, for the first seven games this year.

“Just had a wee son, trying to spend as much time as I can at home and help the wife out. I’ll have a few weeks off after this, before sort of heading to the later stages of the IPL and away for the winter,” Ferguson said ahead of the 3rd T20I match vs South Africa on Friday.

Ferguson was retained for Rs 2 crore by Shreyas Iyer’s Punjab Kings ahead of IPL 2026 season.

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The Times Of Bengal