IPL 2020 Review | Delhi Capitals: A rollercoaster campaign that ended as a 'could have been'

Plot 

Just like GOT, they had Marcus ‘Jon Snow’ Stoinis saving them multiple times, who seemed to have taken upon himself to take Delhi to the knockouts with his tendency to take important wickets and score important runs - but obviously there can’t be only one protagonist in the huge star-cast. He was hugely aided by Shikhar Dhawan and Purple cap holder Kagiso Rabada, both of whom looked in an impeccable form in their respective roles. Lastly, Axar ‘Tyrion’ Patel - the unsung hero - was like a man on a mission who knew exactly what he had to do and delivered that to perfection. 

The King of Capitals, the Prince that was promised Shreyas ‘Targaryen’ Iyer felt like the one who would transform Delhi fortunes with 38-ball 88, versus KKR, but what we got, in the end, was just the first copy version of the King himself. Although he did score over 500 runs in the season, which on paper looks like a great season, most of those runs worked in favour of the opposition as the Delhi captain failed to attack after using up all the deliveries. Iyer was not alone in his gimmicks as he was ably supported by Rishabh Pant, who seemed to have gotten into some weird mindset, where he tried to play sensibly but ended up doing senseless innings. Ironically, both of them played a good knock in the final but again, to what use?

Marks for direction - 8/10

Hits 

To start off from the top, the decision to send Marcus Stoinis up the batting order was a huge hit for Delhi as it helped them reach the final. Other than that, using Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin wisely in the powerplay, giving the responsibility to bowl in the middle-overs to Rabada, and them finally learning to use Shimron Hetmyer towards the end were some of the decisions that definitely worked in favour of Delhi. Bringing Stoinis onto to bowl whenever in trouble was another hit, but it was more of desperate call than a tactical decision; given the form of Stoinis, it didn’t really have much chance to fail. 

It would be an understatement to state that Shaw was going through a rough phase, he was terrible and Delhi should have benched him much earlier than he actually was. Alex Carey, who got the opportunity to play after Pant’s injury, didn’t really do any justice to the chances he was given. And how about watching the previous performances of Hetmyer and then constructing a place for him in the team, rather than using him haphazardly and in the end finally releasing that his true potential? Another huge miss of their season was the lack of a third seamer. They tried multiple players at this position including Harshal Patel, Tushar Deshpande, Avesh Khan and Daniel Sams, but none of them could perform well enough to warrant a place in the team. 

Supporting actors 

Overall rating - 7/10