FIRST LOOK: DELHI DAREDEVILS

The foremost question in every Delhi Daredevils’ player must be: Will we be third time lucky? Despite having what is arguably the strongest side in IPL, they are yet to make it past the semifinals of the tournament. They have three of the best batsmen in the world right now in their rank (Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan), one of the best middle order players in the world (DeVilliers), and the best T20 bowler in the world (Vettori). Somehow, the Aussies have proven to be major bug-bears for them in the semifinals of both the previous editions of IPL. Shane Watson and Shane Warne smashed and spun them out in the first edition and Gilchrist hammered them in the second.

They have added Wayne Parnell to their squad this year at the expense of Glenn McGrath. It will be interesting to see how this change will work for the Daredevils. Meanwhile, let’s have a look at the rest of the squad.

Batting

As mentioned earlier, with Gambhir, Sehwag, and Dilshan at the top, AB DeVilliers, Dinesh Karthik, and Mithun Manhas in the middle order, and Vettori and Rajat Bhatia in the lower middle order, Delhi have a lineup that can terrorize the opposition bowlers if needed or prop up the innings to a respectable score even if they lose a few early wickets. This batting depth is what gives the Delhi top order the license to go after the bowling right from the word go. Besides these players who may be the regulars in the side, Delhi has a lot of batsmen suited to this format. Fervez Mahroof and Andrew McDonald have done reasonably well as all-rounders. Wayne Parnell showed his abilities as an all-rounder in the recent series against India. Amit Mishra has been batting well of late. And David Warner is in sizzling form, and might just give Dilshan tough competition for the opening slot. Among the regulars, Sehwag, as always, is going to be the key at the top. Gambhir will want to get into runs after having a lean series against South Africa, the one team everyone expected him to score against given his tremendous form. Dilshan on the other hand is causing the bowlers all around the world some serious problems; and I don’t mean just with his scoop shot. Karthik too, has been in good form lately. All in all, given their batsmen’s recent form, and given the fact that they will be playing in Indian conditions, we can hope for towering scores from the Daredevils. Looking at their batting lineup, it’s difficult to find any chinks. Gambhir’s form may be a concern, but he’s too good a player to remain out of form for too long. And they seem to have a replacement ready for almost every batsman. Sehwag and Dilshan’s ability to bat in the middle order means they can play Warner at the top incase DeVilliers is missing. And the fact that Warner may join the team a bit late wouldn’t bother Gambhir much because they have a loaded top order. The only concern for Delhi would be over complacency. But after their shock exits in the last two editions, I guess that they would be on guard against it.

Bowling

Despite the omission of Glen McGrath, the Delhi bowling looks quite balanced. They have four left-armers in their side; Dirk Nannes, Wayne Parnell, Ashish Nehra, and Pradeep Sangwan. Nehra will ofcourse be leading the attack. Nannes and Parnell will have to fight it out for the second seamer’s place. Nannes has been doing pretty well, and he did a good job replacing McGrath in the last edition of IPL. Parnell has lived up to his reputation as a young prodigy so far, but has a tough outing in India. He can ofcourse bat better then Nannes, but if Delhi have to rely on Parnell to make runs, then they can give up any hopes of winning the tournament. Vettori, ofcourse, has one of the best economy rates in T20 cricket. But what’s interesting is that he is also picking up wickets regularly, which means that leaving him out of the squad will be a huge gamble. Add to that his more than useful batting skills, and you have a very handy cricketer coming in at number eight. Amit Mishra has been showing inconsistent form with the ball lately. He had a horrendous series against Sri Lanka, but came back strongly against Bangladesh. Against South Africa he was lackluster in the first test, but bowled beautifully in Kolkata, including the magic ball to dismiss Kallis in the second innings of the test. Apart from these five, they have got excellent backup bowlers in the form of Sangwan, Mosies Henriques, McDonald, Avishkar Salvi, and Mahroof. Infact, Sangwan was pretty impressive last season, Salvi did well in the later stages of the tournament, Mahroof was not only economical in the limited chances that he got to bowl, but he also chipped in with a few wickets. Rajat Bhatia was another player who was very impressive bowling in the middle over, and occasionally during the death overs. Apart from these bowlers, Delhi will also have the off-spin services of Sehwag and Dilshan. The first word that comes to mind looking at this bowling attack is variety. The one area of weakness in this attack is that it might lack the incisiveness that McGrath brought at the start of the innings. True Nannes and Nehra bowled economically last season, but the conditions are going to be very different this season. And when it comes to bowling in the sub-continent, there are few who are better than McGrath. But with the kind of form their batsmen are in, I think that Delhi may not miss McGrath that much.

Fielding

The Daredevils look pretty good in the fielding department with DeVilliers and Dilshan manning the infield and the likes of Parnell in the outfield. Karthik will be the wicketkeeper and he will have one more chance to try and upstage Dhoni as India’s premier wicket keeper; atleast in the T20 format. The weak link for Delhi will be Nehra and Sehwag. And as we have seen repeatedly, no team can hide its weaker fielders in this format of the game.

Final Verdict

Gautam Gambhir’s appointment as a captain means Sehwag can concentrate on his primary job – slaughtering bowlers. This will be a huge test for Gambhir not only because he’s one of the mainstays of their batting, but also because he will be up against the likes of Dhoni, Ganguly, Kumble, and most importantly Warne, who’s proved that you don’t need a very strong side to win a T20 game. These are seasoned campaigners, and if Gambhir can pass this acid test, then he may even stake a claim for the Indian captaincy in the future. All in all, Delhi look the strongest contenders for the trophy this season, provided they can get past the Aussie jinx.

Delhi Daredevils squad

Tilakratne Dilshan	David Warner
Virender Sehwag	Pradeep Sangwan
Gautam Gambhir	Fervez Mahroof
AB De Villiers	Andrew McDonald
Dinesh Karthik	Mosies Henriques
Mithun Manhas	Umesh Yadav
Rajat Bhatia	Kedar Jadhav
Daniel Vettori	Aavishkar Salvi
Amit Mishra	Joginder Singh
Ashish Nehra	Sarandeep Singh
Dirk Nannes	Sarabjeet Ladda
Wayne Parnell