Published: May 05, 2011, 11:52 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 21, 2014, 07:40 PM (IST)
By Mayank Jhaveri
When the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction took place, most cricket followers realised that Delhi Daredevils (DD) would be one of the weakest teams in the tournament.
Gautam Gambhir was the backbone of Delhi’s batting throughout season one. In IPL2, Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers powered the team into the last four with consistent batting performances. Not retaining these three powerhouses was baffling, to say the least.
The current Daredevils depend a lot on skipper Virender Sehwag, David Warner and Morne Morkel. Aaron Finch is a very impressive opening batsman, but was asked to bat at No 6 on occasions. Other Indians include Yogesh Nagar, Venugopal Rao and ‘keeper Naman Ojha – none of whom have been consistent or impressive. Unmukt Chand is a very talented youngster, but he probably needs some more experience before he can face the likes of Laisth Malinga.
There is hardly any real firepower after Sehwag and Warner. The team management under Greg Shipperd (along with Eric Simmons) has tried using Aussie Matthew Wade in place of Finch without any success. James Hopes has contributed with both bat and ball, but is currently nursing an injury. Travis Birt has looked decent in whatever little we have seen of him so far, so can’t blame the DD think-tank if they are tempted to give him couple of more chances.
DD have also got their batting order all wrong. When you have an experienced top-order batsman like Finch, it makes little sense to send Naman Ojha or Yogesh Nagar ahead. Rao is a decent middle-order batsman who can play the ball around and get the occasional big hits, so giving him some more time at No 4 is prudent than trying Irfan Pathan. Honestly, even their win against Pune was not due to any overall good performance; DD managed to scrape through on the back of some late hitting by Rao and Finch. In that match too, the batting order was unbelievable.
Warner started the IPL in decent form, but of late has failed to get runs, putting pressure on Sehwag. But Warner deserves a longer run, despite suggestions to drop him and bring back Finch as opener.
When it comes to bowling, DD have again made some blunders. Players like Pradeep Sangwan and Yo Mahesh had done a decent job in the first three seasons, yet nothing was done to keep them. Even if one justifies re-buying Umesh Yadav for his pace and yorkers, there is no justification in buying Ajit Agarkar, who conceded an average of nine runs an over and picked up just four wickets in seven matches last season for Kolkata Knight Riders.
Even Ashok Dinda, formerly of the same franchise, was bought by spending handsome money when he isn’t an ideal T20 bowler. Dinda puts in a lot of effort and has some zip, but he is expensive and not a wicket-taker.
Spending close to $2 million on injured and out of form Irfan Pathan was one of the biggest mysteries of the auction. So far, he has bowled well only in two matches of the nine games. Irfan’s poor form has put Morne Morkel and James Hopes under much pressure. Hopes has been doing an above-average job, while Morne has been the only regular wicket-taker. But they need some more support from other bowlers and the batsmen.
The biggest disappointment has been the lack of quality spinners. Delhi’s Feroze Shah Kotla is known to have slow, spin-friendly pitches, yet the management did not show any foresight in buying rated spinner. Yogesh Nagar and Shahbaz Nadeem are too inexperienced, while Roelof Van de Merwe is not a traditional spinner. de Merwe might be effectively occasionally, but someone like Amit Mishra or Rahul Sharma was required to take advantage of the home conditions.
As a Delhite, I kept hoping that Sehwag and Warner would trigger off a DD comeback. But the only time they fired together was against King’s XI Punjab when the amassed 225 plus. Sehwag also showed good application by smashing 80 on an extremely difficult Kochi pitch. However, expecting him to fire every time is a bit too much.
DD’s one-dimensional bowling line-up is not helping their cause as on tracks with a bit of movement for the pacers they are getting hit for loads of runs. The DD fielding, too, is not up to the mark.
In spite of winning just one game from six matches on their home ground, the crowds have turned up, game after game to support DD. But the team has continued to disappoint them.
It’s uphill hereon for DD.
(Mayank Jhaveri is 19-year old cricket blogger from New Delhi who writes at freehitcricket.com and can be found on twitter @freehit_mj)
