Delhi Daredevils, who have never won the IPL title, can hope to do so this time around with Gautam Gambhir coming back to the franchise after a long span of 6 years. Gambhir, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous few editions, led the side to two titles as captain. Under his captaincy, KKR, who were struggled in the starting few seasons, not being able to qualify to the knockout stages, became one of the most consistent teams in the tournament. The 36-year, who was bought for Rs 2.8 crore by DD, has played 148 matches in IPL, in which he has scored 4,133 runs at an average of 31.55. In him, Delhi have the perfect player who can lead them as captain for the upcoming season.
Strength: The bowling line-up for Delhi Daredevils is looking strong with the franchise retaining South Africa seamer Kagiso Rabada for Rs 4.2 crore and Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami for Rs 3 crore. Delhi also had retained Chris Morris in the squad, which further boosts their seam bowling attack. Delhi have also bought New Zealand seamer Trent Boult for Rs 2.2 crore, as another back-up seaming option. The likes of Jayant Yadav and Shabaz Nadeem along with experienced Amit Mishra, who is the only player to have 3 hat-tricks in IPL, provide them with a skilled set of spin-bowling options who can trouble a strong batting line-up.
Smart buy: India U-19 captain Prithvi Shaw could prove to be a smart buy for Delhi Daredevils this season. Shaw has already shown his talent at the ICC U-19 World Cup, scoring two half centuries in the tournament, and is considered to be one of the rising stars already. The youngster came into the limelight several years ago, when he was just 15 years old, when he smashed 546 runs in an innings in the prestigious Harris Shield Title tournament, creating a national record. Shaw has the technical ability that is required to pace the innings in a T20 format, and he can also open the innings for Delhi Daredevils.
Weakness: Delhi have bought way too many top-order batsmen which has made their middle-order appear a bit weak. As opening batsmen options, DD have Rishabh Pant, Gautam Gambhir, Colin Munro, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer. The side will have trouble deciding their batting order and like previous two editions, they may have to once again try and test different combinations to decide who will open the innings. It may pose a challenge for middle-order batsman Glenn Maxwell to settle to one position in the middle and it might affect the overall batting unit like it happened with Angelo Mathews in last two editions.
Squad: Rishabh Pant (retained 15 crore), Chris Morris (retained 11 c), Shreyas Iyer (retained 7 c), Glenn Maxwell (9 c), Gautam Gambhir (2.8 c), Jason Roy (1.5 c), Colin Munro (1.9 c), Mohammed Shami (3 c), Kagiso Rabada (4.2 c), Amit Mishra (4 c), Prithvi Shaw (1.2), Rahul Tewatia (3 c), Vijay Shankar (3.2 c), Harshal Patel (20 Lakh), Avesh Khan (70 Lakh), Shabaz Nadeem (3.2 Cr), Dan Christian (1.5 Cr), Jayant Yadav (50L), Gurkeerat Singh (75 L), Trent Boult (2.2 Cr), Manjot Kalra (20L), Abhishek Sharma (55L), Sandeep Lamichanne (20L), Sayan Ghosh (20 lakh)
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