IPL 2018 | Delhi Daredevils primed for success with unique mix of youth and experience
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Delhi have always come up with a renewed cast every two years but the same old plot has also continued to harass them on the big stage, time and again. In the decade-long caravan that is Indian Premier League, they have been on the wrong side of the results, in almost each and every season.
And for this dubious standing, the GMR-JSW owned franchise donât have anyone but to blame themselves. The team formation dynamics in any franchise-based league - and especially a tournament like the IPL where the owners have been assigned a specific amount to spend - have always boiled down to how intelligently a team can snap up a player they need with minimal amount possible. While Delhi
While they missed the spark of a veteran, at the same time though, the squad had also packed a lot of promise. Their batting reserves boasted of some of the country's finest talents and the pace unit had also been well stocked up in the player auction. While their bowling seemed to be one of the finest in the tournament, Daredevils were marred by their batting failures that majorly stemmed from an ever-expanding list of injuries, inexperience, tactical blunders, and inconsistency, which resulted in the team ending up at the sixth position in the last edition of the IPL.Â
However, things seem to be different now. While the team decided to retain their faith in young Indian talents like local boy Rishabh Pant and Mumbaiâs Shreyas Iyer, they also brought in T20 superstars in Glenn Maxwell and Colin Munro. And who says the coach didnât have a say in that? Ricky Ponting, for all his majesty with the Baggy Green, has been an exceptional strategist in the shortest format of the game as well and has put up his shrewd mind to great use at the auction to form a team that has the ability to bury the disappointments of the past one decade and to win the hearts of the Delhi people.Â
While Delhi always had the wiles of the likes of Zaheer Khan and Chris Morris with the ball, they often fell short on big-hitting in the last few seasons of the IPL. However, there have been some good signings this year as DD decided to load the team with more pinch hitters than serial run accumulators. As a matter of fact, if the team include Jason Roy, Munro, Maxwell, Chris Morris as four overseas players in the team and put their trust on the Indian spinners, then their top seven has a T20 strike rate of 140 since the 2015 edition of the IPL. By that, the GMR-JSW team will go with Gautam Gambhir, Pant, and Iyer, which is all but confirmed.  Â
While many have put up questions about their decisions to not purchase any star spinners, it doesnât paint that
However, just to be on the line of the âLaw of averagesâ, Delhi has as many chinks as any other teams in the league. The team doesnât have any other option than being overly relied on Morris as far as fast bowling is concerned. While there have been talks surrounding how big a steal Boult was for the Delhi team, he has also been one of the most expensive bowlers in the league with an economy rate as high as 8.8 an over in the IPL. And the case is not so different with Kagiso Rabada either, who has been a failure in the IPL and has failed to pick up more wickets while conceding a lot of runs. And the under-fire franchise would want one of them to come good to ease out the workload on the injury-prone Morris.
As a matter of fact, Daredevils have a strong batting unit at the top-order but most of them, apart from Gambhir and Iyer,
Delhiâs problems have always been attributed to their lack of imaginative approach during the match, but with Gambhir is back at the helm, the perennially muddled franchise can expect to uplift their sagging fortunes. In a format as fickle as T20 cricket, it is not at all advisable to not improvise on the go, but with good enough players in the team, there have to be some hopes of finally winning that damned cup this year.
