Delhi Capitals : IPL 2021 Team Review

 

Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals had a phenomenal season except for those 4 encounters against Mumbai Indians. For last  2-3 seasons they  looked a perfectly settled and ready to march team. DC are no more the underdogs they were before, it reflects in their confident playing style. With this  young side and mighty Ponting in dugout, their maiden title doesn't look a far fetched dream.

Squad 

Auction Review

Despite their irrational pre-auction trade of Harshal, Daniel Sams and Deshpande, DC already had their basics covered even before entering the auction room. Unlike most of the other teams  Delhi resisted themselves from rolling out millions. They were lucky enough to get Umesh Yadav at his base price...I mean how can anyone leave an experienced  Indian pacer of his stature to be bought at base price. Billings is an stellar buy though only time will tell how good he turns on Indian pitches. Smith even at  2.2 crores  is not a good fit for  Capitals, might be  Aussie quota... what say punter?. The lesser known Curran(Tom) can be a like to like  alternative for Stoinis, more of a bowler though.  However, DC managed to fetch a good lot of domestic players in Vishnu, Meriwala and Patel. Vishnu particularly can be a handy second wicketkeeping option in the team.

Overall this seems to be a pretty average auction from the  runners up, they could have leaned a bit more chasing an Indian all-rounder but its ok, there weren't  many.

S   W  O  T

Strengths

Who  isn't already a fan of  PANTASTIC performances, Pant definitely  is the USP(unique selling point) of this Delhi team. Delhi will be more than ever counting on him for his midas touch. Shaw on the other hand is in red hot form, making daddy hundreds his routine. With AA(Ashwin and axar) spin battery Capitals have best in industry spin attack, addition of Mishraji makes it an outlier. While all this exists their  most consistent strength comes in form of Rabada and Nortje. Together they form a formidable pair fast, accurate and ruthless. Icing on the top is Stoinis's ever lasting form, he can do it all alone. I can bet on this as of today, their is  no team who have more in-form players than this Delhi side.

Weaknesses

IPL these days are quite consuming and tiring, Indian summers add to it. Players like Mishraji, Dhawan and Ashwin  always had  fitness issues, for them to play whole season seems unlikely. Forced changes have always been a pain for Delhi Capitals, who failed to find a proper replacement for the leggie last season. Apart from that  rusty form of their skipper  Shreyas might make the job tad more difficult for the otherwise  good batting line-up. 

Opportunities

This is the time and they have it all ... they are inching towards the trophy season by season. With most of the Delhi's scheduled games on Eden garden and none on  the 'chinna' ground of  Chinnaswamy, DC with this spin attack can choke best of teams in middle overs. Moreover this time Prithvi Shaw is the man to look out for making a statement, answering all those who questioned him. With his growing stature, Axar will be keen to show his white-ball skills and Shreyas Iyer on the other hand has a point to prove. With T-20 world cup on cards  everybody will be leaving no stones unturned for their spot in respective national teams.

Threats

 Despite of carrying so many eye catching match winners, at the end of the day it all boils down to the  mighty pair of  Pant and Iyer, this has been the case for 3 years now. They as team lack composure and temperament which leads them to  frequent collapses and choking at the major turns of tournament. In addition to that DC have a problem of plenty, it is difficult to pick a perfect XI from such a promising lot of players. Having  heard loads of compliments of Iyer's captaincy, this needs to be addressed efficiently though.

All in all Delhi capitals this time is coming all their guns blazing, this time it won't be easy....... are you listening MUMBAII.

Probable XI

Prithvi Shaw

Shikhar Dhawan

Shreyas Iyer (c)

Rishabh Pant (wk)

Shimron Hetmyer

Marcus Stoinis

Axar Patel

Ravi Ashwin

Umesh Yadav

Kagiso Rabada

Anrich Nortje