Delhi Capitals IPL Team

Of the three original teams that are yet to lift an IPL title, Delhi Capitals are the one who got the closest most recently. They reached their first IPL final in the Covid-affected 2020 season, and had a veritable super team on hand when they got there — the only problem is they ran into a team who were somehow even stronger, and much stronger at that.

For a team hailing from the capital, as their name suggests, the DC unit has always felt like a secondary plotline in the IPL, despite the star-power that has graced the Feroz Shah Kotla over the years. It’s a very different-looking team to what it was even five years ago: Shreyas Iyer was already bid goodbye, Shikhar Dhawan moved on, Kagiso Rabada moved on, Prithvi Shaw never quite found his potential, and finally, in a brutal blow, local boy Rishabh Pant also asked to leave the team ahead of this mega-auction.

This is perhaps therefore the newest-look team in the entire tournament, not retaining too many of their stars and relying on pieces rather than names when it came to restructuring in the auction. Axar Patel, assumed to be their captaincy candidate, was the most expensive retainee, and was joined by Kuldeep Yadav and Tristan Stubbs, with Abhishek Porel coming in as an uncapped retention. While these are some very exciting and unique pieces compared to other teams, Delhi had a lot of work to do in the auction — and came out of it looking pretty good.

Their marquee buy was KL Rahul, who they got at a relative steal of 14 crore in a market where Iyer and Pant received nearly 30. This opened up the chance to go all-out for world class pace, and this meant DC were able to rope in Mitchell Starc, who won last year’s IPL with KKR. Not only that, they got one of the best Indian T20 bowlers in T Natarajan, who is as reliable a performer as it gets in the IPL, and also sniped Mukesh Kumar with an RTM to form a strong pace battery to complement their best-in-the-league spin duo. That bowling attack could be scary news.

DC did face a hiccup on the eve of the tournament as Harry Brook pulled out for the second consecutive year, with no replacement having been named yet. The batting is therefore the weaker aspect: Rahul is expected to open alongside the flamboyant Jake Fraser-McGurk, but JFM’s rough run of form means the experienced Faf du Plessis could be the option they go for. Tristan Stubbs could bat anywhere from 3 to 5, with Abhishek Porel showing plenty of promise, as did Ashutosh Sharma for PBKS. But both these players are relatively unknown quantities, and Delhi know that if their batting doesn’t click, it will spell trouble in the friendly run-scoring environment of their home stadium. Will we see Axar Patel bat higher than he ever has on a regular basis in T20 cricket? Could give DC the same flexibility he has been providing team India.

Another interesting thing to keep an eye on will be how the new coaching core fares, with Ricky Ponting leaving after 8 years in the capital city and Hemang Badani stepping in. Badani has experience winning in other franchise leagues — can he guide Delhi to their first trophy?