NEW DELHI: Indian Premier League franchise Delhi capitals held a fantastic two-day mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where they made a splash with their top purchase of Indian batsman KL Rahul.
After acquiring Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel, the Delhi-based franchise struck a bargain deal with Rahul when he was bought for Rs 14 crore.
After the two-day affair ended on Monday, DC has put together a near-perfect squad that has a great mix of experience and youth. While DC boasted some impressive purchases at the auction alongside Rahul, including Australian speedster Mitchell Starc and England's Harry Brook, their strategy in selecting home-grown Indian talent also proved quite interesting.
Late in the second day of the auction, DC selected homegrown talent – especially all-rounders – in large quantities and at low prices, suggesting an investment in the future.
And the credit for this goes to former Indian cricketer Vijay Bharadwaj, who joined the franchise in October as head of the talent scout wing.
Bharadwaj, along with DC cricket director Venugopal Rao, who hails from Andhra and is passionate about state cricket, was instrumental in targeting the local talent by selecting the lesser-known players from the franchise trials and state leagues .
Six fringe players – Manvanth Kumar (30 lakh), Madhav Tiwari (40 lakh), Tripurana Vijay (30 lakh), Ajay Mandal (Rs 30 Lakh), Vipraj Nigam (Rs 50 Lakh) and Darshan Nalkande (Rs 30 Lakh) – were all picked by the franchise at their base prices as the franchise placed high emphasis on local all-rounders.
Here's a quick look at the 'Desi' talents and how they fared in Indian domestic sports.
Ajay Mandal (all-rounder)
Ajay Jadav Mandal, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, has quite good experience in Indian domestic sports.
The 28-year-old represents Chattisgarh and made his First Class debut in 2016.
The all-rounder bats left-handed and is a slow, orthodox spinner.
Interestingly, Ajay was previously picked by Chennai Super Kings but didn't get a chance in the starting XI.
Before the auction in 2025, Ajay had a strong score with the No. 7-8 bat (69, 66, 11*, 64, 21, 69, 57*, 2, 51*, 21, 63) and also picked a decent one Hit number of wickets in Ranji Trophy.
Ajay has featured in 39 First Class matches for Chhattisgarh and has a total of 1,822 runs and 124 wickets to his name. With the bat, Ajay hit 241* in Ranji and is best at 7/7.
Ajay also featured in 30 List A and 42 T20 tournaments, where he scored a total of 852 runs and 71 wickets.
Darshan Nalkande (bowler)
Skiddy pacer Darshan Nalkande, born in Wardha, Maharashtra, has extensive experience in domestic cricket including IPL.
The 26-year-old plays for Vidarbha and has six Ranji games to his name. Additionally, Darshan has been part of the lineup of Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings in the past.
Although Darshan never played for the Punjab Kings, he featured in six IPL matches for the Titans in the last three years, picking up six wickets.
In List A cricket, Darshan has 49 wickets in 29 matches while in T20 matches he has 73 scalps in 47 matches.
Darshan was also previously selected for the India Under-19 team for the Youth Asia Cup but could not make it to the World Cup squad.
Tripurana Vijay (all-rounder)
Born in Tekkali, Andhra Pradesh, young Tripurana Vijay has made steady progress in Indian cricket.
The 23-year-old represents Andhra and made his Ranji debut in 2022.
Tripurana has 7 first-class matches to his credit with the batting all-rounder having 150 runs and 16 wickets to his name.
In Mushtaq Ali's opening match of the season, the umpire prevailed against Nagaland by 4 for 8.
Tripurana has also played 6 List A and as many T20 tournaments where he has a total of 54 runs and 13 wickets.
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Manvanth Kumar (all-rounder)
Strong performances in the Maharaja Trophy in Karnataka helped Manvanth Kumar secure a contract with DC in the 2025 auction.
The 20-year-old from Mysore made his debut in cricket at the age of 12 and has flourished in state cricket ever since.
In the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Maharaja Trophy, Manvanth picked 22 and 16 wickets respectively for the Hubli Tigers and was even a purple cap holder before last season.
Manvanth hasn't been a part of the Karnataka state team yet but has made all the right noises in T20 tournaments that have helped him come into DC's focus.
Madhav Tiwari (all-rounder)
Among the uncapped players, DC has made an interesting acquisition in the form of Madhav Tiwari, who is touted as one of the most promising desi quicks in recent times.
At the base price of Rs 30 lakh, along with DC, Mumbai Indians also showed a little interest in Madhav at the auction and raised the paddle once before securing him for Rs 40 lakh.
A clean striker with the bat, Madhav made headlines across Madhya Pradesh last year with his fast bowling.
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 this season in October.
Before being picked by DC in the auction, Vipraj had taken 13 wickets against Bengal, Haryana and Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy.
He also had a great performance in the UP T20 League where he impressed mightily with the ball for Lucknow Falcons.
