It is safe to assume that Delhi Daredevils have been the worst of the IPL teams. They finished bottom of the table in three out of 10 seasons, made it to the semi-finals just twice and haven't gone past the league phase more than three times overall.
Perhaps this leads one to assume that they haven't had good players over the years. That has not been the case, though. Listed below is a slew of IPL and International stars who have adorned the Delhi line-up in the past.
Glenn McGrath
AB de Villiers
David Warner
Gautam Gambhir
Virender Sehwag
Tilakaratne Dilshan
Daniel Vettori
Aaron Finch
Andre Russell
Morne Morkel
Kevin Pietersen
Yuvraj Singh
Umesh Yadav
Imran Tahir
Now that is a whole lot of fabulous cricketers. What then has affected Delhi's IPL performances? Inconsistency in team selection and tactics at the auction.
The most successful team in the Indian Premier League – Chennai Super Kings – had a core group of players which remained the same over several seasons. The temptation to chop and change at the mere sight of one disastrous season is too high. But inconsistency in the team only leads to inconsistent performances, as Delhi have shown over the years.
Why would they let some of these iconic cricketers leave when they had an option of retaining them?
More often than not Delhi have relied on players well past their prime or brought in one-season stars.
Consider their insane, absurd bid for Pawan Negi in 2012.
The left-arm spinner and power hitter did a decent job with Chennai Super Kings the previous season, but shelling out Rs 8.5 crores for him was touching the heights of idiocy.
Their obsession with the likes of the injury-prone Angelo Mathews is also bizarre. The Sri Lankan hasn't been the best of T20 players but Delhi relied on him a lot last season, even at the expense of Chris Morris, whose vociferous striking ability with the willow earned him a huge fan base.
Dreadful Auction, But IPL 10 Tactically Good for DD
Tactically, last season was good for Delhi. They had Rahul Dravid heading a group of young, exciting cricketers – Sanju Samson, Kaun Nair, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. But vexed in between these young superstars were a slew of cricketers well past their prime and it is safe to say that it affected Delhi's performance.
The auction was dreadful for them. They built a team around bowlers when in T20s these days you need big hitters who can alter the course of the game in the middle-overs. The only two players in Delhi's squad last year who could boast of formidable six-hitting abilities were Chris Morris and Corey Anderson.
Their picks at the auction were all bowlers or not-so-much-there batsmen. Kagiso Rabada was picked up for Rs 5 crore, Pat Cummins for Rs 4.5 crore, Angelo Mathews for Rs 2 crore, Murugan Ashwin for Rs 1 crore and Corey Anderson. The only two batsmen they picked were Ankit Bawne and Aditya Tare.
The absence of Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy affected them, but to build a team around an army of overseas fast bowlers made little sense. Particularly since they had quite a few bowlers in Mohammad Shami, Shahbaz Nadeem, Amit Mishra and Chris Morris.
Karun Nair scored runs, but it came at a rather poor strike rate and it was puzzling to watch him at No 3 or open the batting when they had someone like Shreyas Iyer at their disposal. Zaheer Khan was good with the ball, led well and appeared in control, but a core group of leaders were sorely missed.
With most players going back to the pool, Delhi have a great opportunity to revamp their side for the upcoming seasons.
They have made some decent choices in retaining Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris and Rishabh Pant in their possession. They appointed Ricky Ponting as their head coach, a pretty smart move considering the world of experience the former Aussie skipper has.
They can use the RTM to bring back Quinton de Kock or Kagiso Rabada and strengthen their core group of players, but they still need to go all out on future superstars who are specialists in one department.
Strengthen the Batting
Assuming they bring back Quinton de Kock, Delhi can have Iyer and de Kock opening with Rishabh Pant a spectacular No 3. They need to identify a skipper from the various options available in the pool of players and go all out in bidding for him.
Having a pool of 8-10 batsmen is perfect for a squad in the IPL and it allows to cover up for injured players. Having back-up batsmen also allows to alter batting positions or batting plans mid-way through the season. This was sorely missed by Delhi last time around.
Fast Bowling Core and Death Bowlers
They have always been about seam bowlers and since their home ground is usually bowler-friendly. This isn't a totally poor strategy, but they need to ensure that they do not fill their side with too many bowling options.
Last year, they had a wonderful bowling attack, but more suitable to Test cricket than T20s. Delhi might need to analyse and zero in on some economical fast bowlers while maintaining a good stock of seamers capable of picking up wickets.
Death bowling is a vital area in T20s and successful teams have relied on bowlers who can land a perfect yorker as well as bowl slower variations and cutters at the death. Delhi can dig into their databases and pick out some appropriate options for themselves, but here we identify a small pool.
Wrist Spinners
Perhaps the most important category of players these days in T20s are wrist spinners. With their ability to pick up wickets, wrist spinners have ruled the roost in T20s and having at least two of them (ideally, one foreign and one Indian) makes for a good squad.
Push in some uncapped Indian players and a few under-19 superstars like Prithvi Shaw and Kamlesh Nagarkoti and you have a wonderful team with a mix of everything. Delhi have an immense advantage as their conditions favour quicker bowlers, something that cannot be said of other Indian surfaces.
If they do play their home games at Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils might want to bet on some extremely good seamers, who can double up as death bowlers or all-rounders. They have a three-in-one player in Chris Morris, but would like to add a few more in that category on 27 and 28 January. Can this season spark a turnaround for this under-performing IPL franchise?
(Rohit Sankar is a freelance cricket writer. He can be reached at @imRohit_SN)
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