IPL Preview # 6 - Delhi Daredevils

Here come the IPL's best, and most consistent team. They've dominated the league stages in the past only to lose in the knockouts, and this year they will feel like they should go all the way, to make up for missing out in the last two seasons. They, like Sehwag, have simple plans: the strong batting attacks, and the left-arm quicks (Nehra, Nannes, Sangwan) bowl fast and attack the batsmen. And then there's Dan the Man Vettori and Amit Mishra to own the middle overs. The fielding is fantastic with the likes of Dilshan, AB deVilliers and Dinesh Karthik in the side.


The weakness that DD can be said to have is lower-order batting. After Sehwag and Gambhir, there's AB deVilliers and Dilshan, and Karthik has proved to be a great asset too, but not much after that. They haven't really made an effort to rectify this, in fact they've traded Manoj Tiwary for KKR's Moises Henriques, not a very wise move in my opinion. The fourth overseas player after AB, Dilshan and Nannes was earlier a choice between David Warner, Vettori and Maharoof. The pace department being solid, Maharoof can probably be ruled out, especially since another leftie quick, Parnell, has been brought in. Henriques won't be such a great buy, since he basically does the same things as Andrew McDonald, whom DD already has. The memory of Henriques being shown the door to hell by Pollard in the T20 CL is pretty fresh, too.

Their squad is -

Gautam Gambhir (capt), AB de Villiers, Umesh Yadav, Kedar Jadhav, Wayne Parnell, Shashi Ranjan, Ashish Nehra, Mithun Manhas, Andrew McDonald, Farveez Maharoof, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Joginder Singh, Pradeep Sangwan, Amit Mishra, Moises Henriques, Sarandeep Singh, Sarabjit Ladda, Aavishkar Salvi, David Warner, Dirk Nannes, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Rajat Bhatia. 

Selection is a facile task, as ten players pick themselves, with the question mark being over who the fourth foreign player is. That is, extra firepower in Warner, or probably the best T20 bowler in Vettori. Both are great fielders. The outsiders for selection would be Maharoof, McDonald and Parnell too, even though they paid decent money for him. My line-up:

Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir (c)
Tillekeratne Dilshan
AB deVilliers
Dinesh Karthik (wk)
Rajat Bhatia
Daniel Vettori
Amit Mishra
Pradeep Sangwan
Dirk Nannes
Ashish Nehra

As you can see, four fantastic, game-changing batsmen followed by three all-rounders and four bowlers. On flat tracks Vettori would get more games, otherwise it would be Warner. Injury to Sangwan or Nehra would see Salvi getting to play, and Parnell or Maharoof is Nannes' cover. The cover for an Indian batsman is Mithun Manhas, and McDonald/Henriques otherwise.

My Official-sounding prediction for DD this year: Champs. They are seriously a strong team that can afford to bench David Warner and Wayne Parnell. And they didn't use McGrath the entire last season and still topped the league. Gautam Gambhir is a shrewd player and that may show in his captaincy too. DD should be favourites for the third year in a row.

Next up are the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Until then, Dare to Succeed.

6 comments:

Vettori can step up with the bat if it's his day, and his bowling is just [insert barrage of naughty words here]. Warner is a rocket... I understand you can't play both but... but... argh.

Why actually someone paid money for Moises is incomprehensible. I would not bet on him currently. He is still in a sort of reconvalescence, you don't hear of any Henroics on the domestic level either. Fred knows what his current status is.

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When you look at that side, I don't see how they can fail to win! Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan, AB, such power and class, and the bowling is pretty good, Nannes is class, and Mishra and Vettori, like you say bowling the middle overs...mouthwatering. They're gonna win, that's my bet!

Yeah, playing both would make DD a little TOO awesome, lol.
KKR actually used him is what's baffling - DD certainly won't!

Yeah, Green, they've been favourites every year since the IPL began, this could well be their year!

My prediction is Deccan chargers. Daredevils main problem is they do not have impact player after karthik. Rajat bhatia may be cunning slow bowler but batting is not that good. delhi play villers,warner,dilshan and nannes , they could do well. May be semifinals onwards they may go with full strength.

if they can get good no 6 , they can play vettori,nannes.


I still think it is again bangalore or deccan.

I think four impact batsman are pretty good, alex, as they have several impact bowlers to go with that!

Good call on BRC, I just finished a their preview. DC, I'm not fully convinced but to each their opinion.

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