At the beginning of Indian Premier League, their star player – Quinton de Kock – injured his finger during Test series in New Zealand. JP Duminy was out from the squad citing a personal reason. The Sri Lankan star Angelo Mathews was still in rehabilitation, and in the last moment, Shreyas Iyer fell sick just before their first game. That was enough to gain sympathy Delhi Daredevils. Everyone including me thought they are going to suffer again in this season.
The reason was they did not have any big star name on their roster. Zaheer Khan who is at the end of his career is leading this squad. Though his fitness remains in question every time since that England tour of 2011. The Even former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly blames their selections in the auction for their weakness.
Though they do not have any big names in the squad, but their squad is looking a bit hungry this season. Youngsters like Sanju Samson, Karun Nair an and Rishabh Pant have delivered to the expectations of their mentor Rahul Dravid. In the first game, I believe they were unlucky when Rishabh Pant’s missed a ball on legside in the last over needing 17 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Since then Delhi has done enough to prove their worth in this year’s IPL. Sanju Samson came in front a star for Delhi in the second game against Supergiants and smacked a ton, then later DD’s bowling did not let RPS bat for full 20 overs, same they did with KXIP. In every Delhi got a new face which shined and gave the team chance to dominate.
Delhi’s batting may lack a big name but they have a right balance in Sam Billings as opener and then three young Indian Batsman hungry to impress everybody, then in the down the order Corey Anderson and Chriss Morris can power some shots. Morris played a blinder against Pune, He smashed 38 runs off nine deliveries. Then in next match against Punjab Corey Anderson’s 30 runs, in the end, proved crucial for Delhi. Against RPS and KXIP, their bowling in the presence of Zaheer Khan took control of the game. Zaheer’s fitness is looking good but he had his bad luck in terms of injury so lets just wish he will not miss any game cause of that this season.
Delhi so far did prove everybody even if you lack firepower, your hunger can win you games. The biggest advantage for DD is their Indian players, Sanju, Karun, Rishabh, Nadeem all are hungry to prove their worth for international cricket. And the best part is they are under the guidance of Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan.