The 2017 Indian Premier League auctions saw records getting shattered one after the other as teams broke the bank to secure their choice of players. Over 350 players went under the hammer as teams tried to sort out their composition. Now we take a look at the teams and their compositions and where they stand going into the tournament which begins from April 5. In focus today are the Delhi Daredevils.
The Delhi Daredevils’ is a squad full of youthful exuberance. However, they finished sixth last season and the franchise retained 18 of its players for the tenth edition of the IPL. But they did let go of seven players which included high profile names like Pawan Negi and Imran Tahir ( best T20 bowler).
Hence, the call of the hour were replacements to fill in these slots. The allrounders also needed a back up and the same goes for the fast bowling duo of Mohammed Shami and Zaheer Khan. The addition of an overseas and domestic batsman to strengthen an inexperienced middle order comprising largely of young domestic batsmen was another issue that needed some sorting out.
Now after the auctions the bowling lineup features an experienced Zaheer Khan, along with Mohammed Shami, Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Chris Morris and Amit Mishra. This certainly makes the bowling unit look formidable and it may very well turn out to be Delhi Daredevils’ biggest strength. Even on pitches which will offer less bounce the likes of Cummins and Rabada will generate the extra bounce which will surely trouble the opposition batsmen. Added to that are their skills of bowling in the death overs. Last season Delhi were criticized as they were unable to defend some of their big scores, but surely this time there will be a change in the script.
The batting of the Daredevils will be exciting to watch as the young guns comprising of Quinton de Kock, Shreyas Iyer, Rishab Pant and Sam Billings take the attack to the opposition. The inclusion of India’s latest batting star Karun Nair is another solid addition in their batting.
All-rounders in the form of Angelo Mathews and Corey Anderson add more depth to the squad which will be important as the tournament progresses. However, the think tank of Rahul Dravid and co will need to come up with a match-winning team combination so that they can have a consistent momentum.
Full squad: Angelo Mathews (2 Cr), Corey Anderson (1 Cr), Kagiso Rabada (5 Cr), Pat Cummins (4.50 Cr), Ankit Bawne (INR 10 Lakhs), Aditya Tare (25 Lakhs), Murugan Ashwin (1 Cr), Navdeep Saini (10 lakh), Shashank Singh (10 Lakh), JP Duminy, Mohammed Shami, Quinton de Kock, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer, Zaheer Khan, Sam Billings, Sanju Samson, Chris Morris, Carlos Brathwaite, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, CV Milind, Syed Ahmed, Pratyush Singh.
Squad strength: 26 (17 Indian, 9 Overseas)
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