Delhi Capitals is likely to miss KL Rahul for the first few matches in 2025 season on Indian Premier League, citing personal reasons. Reports are suggesting that him and wife Athiya Shetty are expecting their first child and that KL might miss one or two matches for the franchise having to fulfill his fatherly duties. Recently, Rahul featured in the ICC Champions Tophy 2025. There he picked as a wicketkeeper batter ahead of Rishabh Pant, in the playing XI, doing the finisher's role with the bat. The 32-year-old Karnataka batter scored 140 runs down the order and had a marvelous 42 not-out innings in the semifinal against Australia. He also stood not out at 32 in the final against New Zealand, guarding the lower order after the top felt short to finish the game. Not only that, he had visible improvements with his glove work, but was still slightly struggling with the spin. Read also: LSG pacers to miss bulk of IPL 2025: recovering lumbar injury Captaincy calls for Delhi capitals With Rishabh Pant moving to Lucknow Super Giants, the Delhi Capitals have two strong contenders for captaincy—Axar Patel and KL Rahul. Axar, who has been with DC for seven seasons, appears to have the edge over Rahul, who is new to the franchise. DC is expected to announce its new skipper soon after the Champions Trophy. Players, including Axar, Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Jake Fraser-McGurk, and Mitchell Starc, will assemble in Visakhapatnam on March 17-18 for training. Axar has played 150 IPL matches, scoring 1653 runs at a 131 strike rate and taking 123 wickets at a 7.28 economy. Rahul, an experienced IPL captain, has amassed 4683 runs in 132 games at a 134+ strike rate, including four centuries. He has crossed 500 runs in six of the last seven seasons. While Axar lacks captaincy experience, Rahul’s leadership history makes him a strong contender. However, Axar’s long-term DC presence may give him the advantage.