Aakash Chopra, former Indian opener turned commentator has picked five players the Delhi Capitals should retain for IPL 2021 if there is a mega-auction before the tournament.
He shared these names while talking about the road ahead for the Delhi-based franchise in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
Aakash Chopra: Delhi Capitals Success Shows Acquisition Of Good Players Is Half The Job Done
Aakash Chopra started by pointing out that the Delhi Capitals have shown that a good auction is the main ingredient of a successful IPL team with their brilliant acquisitions last time around.
“The Delhi Capitals’ success shows that the acquisition of good players is half the job done. Here the story is that everything is good and if you break anything it will be wrong only, it cannot be good.”
The renowned commentator observed that the youthful team the Delhi Capitals assembled at the last auction is now an experienced unit and that a mega-auction might result in them losing some of their key players.
“But that’s the story of this team, it was a young team three years ago but is now an experienced team after three years. When you shake up an experienced team, somewhere or the other the things will become less.”
Delhi Capitals went into the auction and retained 14 players and bought 8 players in the IPL Auction 2020. Their best purchases were Shimron Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis while Anrich Nortje and Daniel Sams came as replacements. Skipper Shreyas Iyer, Kagiso Rabada, Axar Patel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw and a few others are below 30 years of age.
Aakash Chopra’s Take On Players Delhi Capitals Should Retain For IPL 2021
Aakash Chopra posed a question to himself about the five players the Delhi Capitals could look to retain for IPL 2021 based on their brilliant performance in recently concluded IPL 2020 where they stormed into the maiden final
“If they have to retain 5 players, 3 Indians and 2 overseas, they don’t have an uncapped player whom they will think of retaining.”
The 43-year-old commentator picked Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant as the three Indian players that the Delhi Capitals might look to retain, even though the latter who is a dashing wicketkeeper-batsman did not have a great IPL 2020.
“I would say Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant as the three Indians although Rishabh Pant did not have a good year but I will definitely retain him and I am pretty sure that the Delhi Capitals will also do that.”
Marcus Stoinis and Kagiso Rabada got the former KKR player’s vote as the two overseas professionals the Delhi Capitals could retain, with the former just edging out Anrich Nortje on a probable toss-up.
“If I have to retain two overseas players, I will be keen to retain Marcus Stoinis and Kagiso Rabada. There could be a toss-up between Marcus Stoinis and Anrich Nortje but I will go with Marcus and try to buy back Nortje in the auction.”
Aakash Chopra concluded by observing that the Delhi Capitals might have to let go of some of their other key players and try to get a few of them back at the IPL 2021 auction with Right To Match card.
“The others will have to go. They will be a little sad about players like Prithvi Shaw, Ashwin and Axar Patel as they are two or three players they may want to keep in the team but I don’t think it will be possible to keep all of them,” Aakash Chopra added.
The top 2 teams of IPL 2020-Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals are the two teams that are likely to be adversely affected if there happens to be a mega-auction before IPL 2021 since they are likely to lose some of the key players from their already suitable combination, while the other outfits expected to have larger remaining purses.