Rishabh Pant and coach Ricky Ponting also join the Delhi Capitals camp

Members of the Delhi Capitals squad, including India star Rishabh Pant, senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, all-rounder Axar Patel as well as head coach Ricky Ponting on Monday assembled at their team hotel here ahead of the upcoming edition of the league. The group also included West Indian batsman Shimron Hetmyer, England players Sam Billings, Chris Woakes, and Tom Curran, as well as bowling coach James Hopes.

The 23-year-old Pant has been in tremendous form this year. Pant played a big role in India's 3-1 Test series win against England, scoring 270 runs from six innings with the help of a century. Pant also returned to India's white-ball team against England. After a decent outing in the T20 Internationals, he was in cracking form in the ODI series, hitting 77 and 78 in the two matches he played.

Both Ashwin and Axar had an incredible outing in the recent Test series against England at home, accounting for most of the visiting wickets with their guile. With regular skipper Shreyas Iyer ruled out of the entire IPL due to the shoulder injury he sustained against England in the limited-overs series recently, these players will be required to be at their best when the event starts.

The players will be in quarantine for one week. The franchise issued images of the players arriving at the team hotel. The Delhi Capitals will take on Chennai Super Kings in their first match of the IPL 2021 season, at the Wankhede Stadium, on April 10.

Delhi Capitals finished as runners-up in the last edition of the IPL, losing to Mumbai Indians in the final. The 14th edition of the lucrative league will start from April 9. Defending champions MI will take on Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore in the tournament opener to be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.