Priyansh Arya proved to be the most exciting name to come out of the inaugural season of the Delhi Premier League (DPL). The talented southpaw ended up as the highest run-getter of the season with 608 runs at a sublime average and strike rate of 67.56 and 198.69, respectively.
The career that was on a rise took another steep step when the Punjab Kings (PBKS) paid Rs 3.80 crore to sign him at the IPL 2025 mega auction. PBKS not only acquired him but made him play all the games at IPL 2025, with head coach Ricky Ponting backing his opener massively. After a terrific debut campaign at the IPL, where he scored 475 runs, Arya was expected to be retained by his franchise at DPL.
Captaincy snub for Priyansh Arya?
However, the South Delhi Superstarz chose to retain their captain, Ayush Badoni, who was considered another sensible option. After all, Badoni is himself as talented as anyone and has great leadership skills. Only one player was allowed for all the franchises to be retained ahead of DPL 2025. Arya, meanwhile, found a new home as he became a marquee pre-auction signee for Outer Delhi Warriors, one of the two new teams at the Delhi Premier League.
Retained at Rs 21 lac, the most expensive bracket, Arya was a potential captaincy candidate for the new franchise. Almost all the retained players, Harshit Rana (North Delhi Strikers), Anuj Rawat (East Delhi Riders), Rishabh Pant (Purani Dilli 6), Himmat Singh (New Delhi Tigers) have been selected as captains. But shockingly, Arya isn’t. It appeared to be an obvious choice. However, the Parthiv Patel-mentored side has gone with a surprising decision.
Siddhant Sharma – 1st ever captain for Outer Delhi
Instead, Outer Delhi Warriors have picked Siddhant Sharma as their captain for DPL season 2. For those unaware, Siddhant is a left-arm pace bowler, who has played 6 Ranji Trophy games for Delhi. He even featured in the historic Delhi vs Railways match that proved to be Virat Kohli’s last red-ball game.
However, Outer Delhi have taken a bold move to choose a captain who didn’t take any wickets in the inaugural season of the tournament. In fact, the southpaw featured just thrice for his previous franchise, the North Delhi Strikers, predominantly playing as an impact substitute. While it remains unkown if he missed the majority of the competition of injury. Having said that, Siddhant will have a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, leading a side that has IPL pedigree players, including Arya and Suyash Sharma. Siddhant, who has 21 first-class wickets at 24.00, was bought for Rs 12.50 lac at the DPL 2025 auction.
Outer Delhi Warriors Full Squad
(Retained: Priyansh Arya)
| Player | Category | Price (INR Lakhs) |
|---|---|---|
| Priyansh Arya | Retained | 21 |
| Suyash Sharma | Marquee | 15 |
| Shivam Sharma | Category A | 5 |
| Sanat Sangwan | Category A | 5 |
| Harsh Tyagi | Category A | 18 |
| Siddhant Sharma | Category A | 12.50 |
| Dev Kashyap | Category B | 3 |
| Shaurya Malik | Category B | 6.25 |
| Keshav Dabas | Category B | 5.25 |
| Aman Choudhary | Category B | 4 |
| Karan Garg | Category B | 3 |
| Atulya Pandey | Category B | 3 |
| Anant S Sareen | Category B | 3 |
| Mohit Panwar | Category B | 3 |
| Shreshth Yadav | Category B | 3 |
| Aarav Gautam | Category C | 1 |
| Dhruv Singh | Category C | 13.5 |
| Kamal Bhairwa | Category C | 1 |
| Aadi Agarwal | Category C | 1 |
| Vivaan Jindal | Category C | 1 |
| Jitesh Singh | Category C | 1 |
| Ashwin Hooda | Category C | 1 |
| Varun Yadav | Category C | 1 |
| Anshuman Hooda | Category C | 12.50 |
| Aryan Dhupar | Category C | 1 |
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