He was picked up for INR 50 lakhs at last auction.
Delhi Capitals (DC) spinner Vipraj Nigam was a revelation last season of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) after being picked for INR 50 lakhs at the auction. A wrist spinner with a knack for providing crucial breakthroughs, he also possesses the ability to take on the attack with the bat in the death overs, making his skillset a rare commodity.
In only his maiden IPL season, he ended up being a crucial cog in the DC setup and featured in all 14 games of the season. Vipraj finished with 11 wickets, while making a handy contribution lower down the order with 142 runs averaging over 20s while hitting at a strike rate of 179.74.
Interestingly, Vipraj recently revealed how he ended up landing a contract with DC, which wouldn’t have been possible without the influence of former Mumbai Indians (MI) pacer Munaf Patel.
Speaking exclusively to Cricxtasy, Vipraj said, “Actually, when DC picked me, during net sessions and practice matches, Munaf (Patel) sir told me he’d watched a few of my UP games. He said they already had plans to take me. But as a player, you do not know these things beforehand.”
Notably, the 21-year-old spinner had finished as the second-highest wicket-taker in UP T20 League last year with 20 scalps in 11 innings. On the other hand, Munaf was hired as DC’s bowling coach ahead of last season.
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With the IPL 2026 auction slated to be a mini-auction, teams are expected to retain their core while making specific tweaks in a bid to bolster and revamp their squads. Vipraj, undoubtedly, was one of DC’s best performers from last season, where they narrowly missed out on a playoffs berth after finishing fifth in the points table.
Given his promising display, Vipraj is amongst the top candidates to get retained by DC ahead of the IPL 2026 auction.
Furthermore, in Vipraj, DC has a set spin trio of Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and the young spinner and it is unlikely they will like to tinker with it by releasing him.
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