IPL 2026: Delhi Capitals appoint Ian Bell as assistant coach

Former England batter Ian Bell has been appointed as an assistant coach of the Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2026. Incidentally, the 43-year-old travelled to India on Monday, February 9 and the franchise announced the development on their social media handles today.

Bell, who has played 118 Tests, 161 ODIs, and eight T20Is, will mark his foray into the IPL for the first time. The Englishman will join the coaching staff which is headed by the Director of Cricket Venugopal Rao, head coach Hemang Badani, fellow assistant coach Matthew Motts, bowling coach Munaf Patel, and team mentor Kevin Pietersen.

Bell is no stranger to coaching. After retiring in 2020, the England veteran was involved with the England Lions and the Under-19 teams. He was also involved with the New Zealand team on their tour of England in 2023 and similarly with the Sri Lankan team as batting coach when they toured England in 2024. Moreover, Bell has also served as the assistant coach of the men's The Hundred team, Birmingham Phoenix.

Delhi Capitals in search of maiden IPL title

The Delhi-based franchise is still on the hunt for their first-ever IPL title. DC belong to the dwindling club of franchises which have been in existence since the first season and have not won a title yet. Their best performance came in the 2020 season when they finished as the runners-up. Despite finishing at the top of the points table on three occasions, the team has not tasted the ultimate success yet.

Under the leadership of Axar Patel, DC would hope success lies not too far away now. The squad has a number of star players in the form of KL Rahul, David Miller, Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, among others. Incidentally, the franchise bought an exciting player, Ben Duckett, in the mini-auction for the upcoming season. The England opener is known to provide fast starts and it will be interesting to see how the left-hander goes in his debut IPL season.