Delhi Capitals Appoint John Mooney as First Irish Coach in IPL History

John Mooney also became the first Irish coach to join the coaching staff of an IPL franchise. The former Ireland all-rounder took over the responsibilities from Gnaneswara Rao and Anton Roux, who held the position last season.

John Mooney will work alongside head coach Hemang Badani, bowling coach Munaf Patel, assistant coach Ian Bell, and director of cricket Venugopal Rao during the IPL 2026 edition.

The former Ireland cricketer brings extensive coaching experience, having served as Afghanistan's fielding coach from 2018 to 2019, including during the team's historic Test debut in India. Mooney has also worked with the West Indies men's team in 2019 and briefly coached the Ireland women's team last year.

During his playing career, Mooney represented Ireland in 64 ODIs and 27 T20Is between 2006 and 2015. He participated in three ODI World Cups (2007, 2011, 2015) and two T20 World Cups (2009, 2010).

Since retiring in 2015, he has completed Level 1, 2, and 3 coaching certifications from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Last season, Delhi Capitals, who have yet to win an IPL title, finished fifth on the points table, missing out on a playoff berth.

With the schedule of the first phase of IPL 2026 announced by BCCI, Delhi Capitals will begin their season campaign against Lucknow Super Giants on April 1. Their next clash will be against the Mumbai Indians on April 4, followed by their matches against the Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings on April 8 and April 11, respectively.

Delhi Capitals squad for IPL 2026:

Nitish Rana, Abishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Sameer Rizvi, T Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, David Miller, Ben Duckett, Auqib Nabi, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parakh, Prithvi Shaw, Kyle Jamieson.

- ANI