IPL 2023, Delhi Capitals Preview – Old habits die hard

Ritam Chatterjee

ByRitam Chatterjee, SportsCafe Editor

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Despite boasting of having a range of glittering superstars, Delhi Capitals always found themselves in the helter-skelter in the early years. However, they are no longer a mediocre performing team and their sparkling consistency in recent years speaks nothing but volumes of a remarkable turnaround.

Until IPL 2018, Delhi Capitals never had a structured graph. In other words, they never seemed to have any plan to lift the elusive trophy. Under Virender Sehwag, the franchise, formerly known as Delhi Daredevils, reached the semi-finals in the inaugural edition after finishing fourth on the points table and improved their numbers in the following season by topping the chart. However, they failed to make it to the final on both occasions, and the failures in big matches led them to replace Sehwag with another local boy, Gautam Gambhir, as their new skipper. The move did not work out as the Daredevils, having finished fifth on the points table, missed the final four.

After Gambhir joined Kolkata Knight Riders for a record-sum, the Daredevils brought Sehwag back at the helm to give him another go. But unfortunately, there was no fairytale story for the Nawab of Najafagarh, under whom they languished at the bottom of the league table. By learning from their mistakes, they roared back in IPL 2012 and finished as the table-toppers for the second time in four years. Yet, they failed to advance to the finals, and their misery continued to go beyond.

Till then, the Daredevils were still up to scratch, given the IPL is the highest standard of competition, and reaching the knockout stage thrice in five seasons was not bad at all. But from there on, they seemed to lose the plot. In the next six years, they never advanced to the playoffs, which included three bottom-placed finishes. Then, in December 2018, they decided to change the name from the Daredevils to Capitals, and magically everything began to improve.

After losing to Chennai Super Kings in the Qualifier 2 of IPL 2019, the Capitals reached the final for the first time in the following season under Shreyas Iyer. Unfortunately, they did not have the last laugh but at least began to perform like a well-oiled machine. The Capitals finished at the top again in IPL 2021, but a defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders in Qualifier 2 ended their journey. Then in IPL 2022, they failed to carry on the momentum, missing a place in the Playoffs for the first time after three successful years. Despite having one of the most potent lineups in the competition, why did they fall apart? And also, what were the things that worked out? We shall discuss all of them here.

Ahead of IPL 2022, the Capitals brought their old guard David Warner back for only ₹6.25 crores after his relationship with dear Sunrisers Hyderabad, whom he led to win the IPL 2016 title, went south. Those who mocked and doubted him eventually scratched their heads as Warner and Prithvi Shaw formed one of the most destructive opening pairs the tournament had ever witnessed. Their relentless hitting at the top helped them to have an average score of 54.14 in the Powerplay overs, only the second-highest behind Punjab Kings (55.21).

The Capitals' middle order, consisting of Mitchell Marsh (251 in eight innings), Rishabh Pant (340 runs in 13 innings), Rovman Powell (250 runs in 10 innings), and Lalit Yadav (161 runs in eight innings), battled valiantly albeit no one had a standout campaign like Warner, who collected 432 runs at an average of 48. Their combined lack of intent to plunder runs led them to score an average of 67.36 in the middle overs (7-15), the worst among all ten franchises. However, they always ensured to garner runs in the death overs (16-20), that too by losing the least number of wickets (1.62).

However, the one area that did not match the hype for the Capitals in IPL 2022 was their bowling, who used to demolish any attack when Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje had bowled in tandem, and Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel complemented them. But last year, Nortje had support from Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed, and Kuldeep Yadav with Axar, and they were nowhere near close to their usual best, resulting in them leaking the highest average team totals (171.21) in the campaign. Only Kuldeep (21 wickets in 14 matches) and Khaleel (16 wickets in 10 games) lived up to their potential, while Nortje, their gun fast bowler, did negligible damage after recovering from an injury.

The Capitals bowlers were lackluster throughout the competition, leading the opposition to score an average of 42.43 runs for the opening wicket – the highest. Simultaneously, the record led them to endure the unwanted tag of being the second-worst team to take wickets (1.29) on average in the Powerplay, only above Royal Challengers Bangalore (1.19). They also gave away the third most runs (76.07) in the middle overs and the second most runs (50.79) in the death, suggesting that they were hugely responsible for their eventual fate of missing out on the playoffs by a whisker.

Keeping the Impact Player rule in mind, the Capitals did intelligent business at the recent auction, recruiting Mukesh Kumar, Manish Pandey, Rilee Rossouw, Ishant Sharma, and Phil Salt. All five of their signings made sense, something rare to observe at the end of bidding wars. In the absence of Rishabh Pant, who is still recovering from a tragic car accident, Manish can be a handy middle-order batter in the Capitals lineup who can provide stability. Mukesh, who had a breakthrough season for Bengal in the domestic circuit, can replace Pandey, or vice versa, depending on the innings and match situation for getting an additional batting or bowling option.

Among the others, South Africa’s Rossouw is an out-and-out No. 3 backup for Marsh, who has struggled with multiple injuries in recent years. Ishant, the homeboy, can use his experience in home conditions to teach youngsters how to perform better in familiar territory. The last one, Salt, is a specialist wicket-keeping backup for Pant, albeit Sarfaraz Khan should get the first nod ahead of him, mainly because (36* off 28 balls, 12* off 13 balls, 32 off 16 balls) he had enjoyed successes rather than failures in IPL 2022.

To conclude, the Capitals, despite having a power-packed roster that can produce pure entertainment, did not do their homework totally at the recent auction. They did not bring a proven fast-bowling wicket-taker to replace Shardul, as their bowling unit does not look clinical from the outside. The most exciting part of the franchise is that Warner will be back as skipper in Pant’s unavailability. If the Aussie pulls off something similar to what he did in IPL 2016 for SRH, the Capitals fans will finally get what they have been eagerly looking for so long. Yet, from a neutral perspective, there are little chances for them to replicate that, as they are unlikely to cut into the final four again.

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