Delhi Daredevils - Squad Analysis

Delhi Daredevils, one of the three teams who have never won the IPL, will be looking to turn things around this time, having Gautam Gambhir back in their squad, after a long span of 6 years. Gambhir, who played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous editions, led the team to the title two times. KKR, who struggled in the first few seasons, became one of the most consistent teams under Gautam's captaincy. The 36 year old veteran was bought by the Delhi Daredevils for a price of Rs. 2.80 crores.

The squad looks decent on paper. The batting department consists of some classy Twenty20 players, with the likes of Gautam Gambhir, who also is likely to be the captain of the team, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Glenn Maxwell, Prithvi Shaw, Jason Roy, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Vijay Shankar, Chris Morris and Colin Munro. 

Indeed, Delhi are going to be having a problem of plenty this time. The squad consists of 5 openers! Gautam for sure is going to be one of them. There are 4 other players who will be fighting for the slot of the second opener, out of which, Colin Munro is a strong candidate. In that case, Jason Roy would need to sit out on the bench, and Rishabh Pant/Prithvi Shaw would have to bat lower in the order. Iyer, Maxwell and Morris will add strength to the middle order. 

The presence of Kagiso Rabada, Mohammad Shami and Chris Morris really boosts up the pace-bowling attack. Delhi have also bought the New Zealand fast bowler, Trent Boult, as a back-up option. The likes of Shahbaz Nadeem, Jayant Yadav & highly-experienced Amit Mishra, provide them with a skilled set of spin-bowling options. 

Complete 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)

Here is my Playing XI from the squad:

1. Gautam Gambhir (Captain)

2. Colin Munro 

3. Rishabh Pant (WK)

4. Shreyas Iyer

5. Glenn Maxwell

6. Chris Morris

7. Kagiso Rabada

8. Shahbaz Nadeem

9. Mohammad Shami

10. Amit Mishra

11. Harshal Patel/Avesh Khan

Cheers,

Sparsh