The change in coaching staff follows the arrangement reached between DC’s co-owners – GMR Sports India Pvt Ltd and Jindal South West (JSW) Sports – post IPL 2024. According to it, each one will control franchise operations in alternating two-year cycles.

Ganguly, who was appointed JSW’s director of cricket in 2024, was DC’s mentor for a season in IPL 2019 before he became the BCCI president. In the SA20 2025, Ganguly served as the head coach at Pretoria Capitals, his maiden foray as a coach. He has also been actively involved with the DC team in the Women’s Premier League [WPL].

This will be the first formal coaching role for Yuvraj, who retired from all forms of cricket in 2019. In the past few years, Yuvraj has been credited by several Indian players, including Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh, for playing an instrumental role in their success as batters.

Pant, the former DC captain, decided to head to the 2025 mega IPL auction after retention talks with the DC leadership group, which included both co-owners – Kiran Grandhi and Parth Jindal – failed. It is understood that one key reason the talks failed was that Pant had suggested some names to be added to the DC coaching staff ahead of IPL 2025. One of the names was Yuvraj.

DC, who as of IPL 2026 are led by Axar Patel, have never managed to win the tournament in 19 seasons, with their best result coming in 2020 when they reached the final.