IPL 10 Analysis: Delhi Daredevils - Where it all went wrong this season?

Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab are the only two sides in the Indian Premier League who haven’t yet managed to win a title throughout the ten seasons of the league. All the other teams have earned the opportunity to grab the silverware at least once. Which makes one ponder that there has to be something wrong with team strategy which devoids the unit from gaining access to the title every single time.

Daredevils are infamous for releasing key players at every auction. Many stalwarts of the format came and went, playing a season or two. Thereby, the franchise does not have a marquee player which could appeal to the fanbase. For instance, they don’t have a Kohli from RCB or a Rohit Sharma from MI. A Gambhir or a Dhawan putting on the dark blues for the DD’s would have been a different proposition altogether for the team.

Many modern greats of the game namely, David Warner, AB de Villiers, Kevin Pietersen, Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, Yuvraj Singh, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Morne Morkel and Ross Taylor, have all represented the franchise at one point of time of their IPL careers. Instead, Daredevils have been the Arsenal of the IPL by giving away young emerging players to different teams at a higher price.

This time around, Rahul Dravid went ahead aggressively during the auctions for enriching their pace battery. Releasing Imran Tahir baffled many Delhi supporter, especially looking at the performance of the leg spinner at Rising Pune Supergiant. They bagged the services fo Pat Cummins and Kagiso Rabada to boost their pace department. They also acquired Corey Anderson from Mumbai Indians and Angelo Matthews in their squad. Let us look at few talking points about Daredevils’ journey this season

Young Indian brigade

Daredevils banked on the ammunition of young Indians who are set to take over the reigns from the likes of Yuvrajs and Dhonis. They had the triple centurion Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant. These players were given ample chance to prove their mettle in the big-stage and none of them disappointed. This has to be one positive out of Delhi’s campaign this season.

Iyer, Pant and Samson’s onslaughts with the bat against Gujarat Lions is still remembered vividly amongst the fans. Nair’s form had been scratchy mostly through the tournament. Through constant backing from Dravid and co., the move finally paid dividends, as Nair came back in some sort of purple patch with the bat during the latter half of the tournament.

Opening conundrum

One of the major criticism this season for the Delhi-based team would be the continuous chopping in the playing XI. Daredevils throughout the season came out with different opening pairs, experimenting various permutation and combinations between Sam Billings, Aditya Tare, Samson, and Nair. Starting off with Tare and Billings, Dravid and co. finally settled for Samson-Nair pair. When a team comes out with different line-ups every time they set foot on the field, it sets a tentative impression on the opposition.

Lightning spells from bowlers

Delhi Daredevils pace battery was one of most talked about in the tournament with bowlers chipping in with wickets with nominal economy rates. Delhi now had four-pronged pace attack consisting of Rabada, Cummins, Morris and Shami, with the guile of Zaheer Khan during power plays.

Therefore, they were a threat both up front and during the death. The list of the fastest deliveries bowled in the tournament is plagued with Delhi’s pacers, with bowlers consistently hitting the 150+ mark, creating havoc in the opposition’s camp. Even Zak occasionally scaled above 140 on many occasions.

Spin tangle

Shahbaz Nadeem has been an integral part of Daredevils camp since 2011. He has played 55 matches overall while representing Daredevils and has taken 37 wickets at a miserly economy of 7. Amit Mishra and Jayant Yadav prohibited the spirited left-arm offie from playing in the majority of the matches.

Mishra was given a full run in the tournament but only managed to claim 10 wickets. Daredevils emphasised so much on their seamers that they overlooked the importance of spin in T20s. One had a feeling that Nadeem was underused in the tournament.

Shocking batting collapses

Even though the batting line-up of Daredevils gave high hopes about the future of Indian Cricket Team but whenever they failed, the entire team failed collectively. Their responses against Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab in must-win situations is a prime example of it. DD was bowled out for paltry totals such as 63 and 66 to dent their chances of qualifying for the playoffs.

Constant changes

Ricky Ponting mentioned that Daredevils have continuously chopped and changed their line-up which reflected on their performance this season. According to Punter,”It’s not that they change just one player either, they will make four or five changes per game. When you’re trying to train guys to play specific roles in a line-up, you can change a team by just giving them a different role. You don’t actually change the personnel, you change the role in that squad of 11 players.” This was one of the top reasons for the failure of the franchise this season.

Delhi Daredevils ended up in the sixth position in the table with 12 points. The management would be happy about the fact that the team ended on a sweeter note, losing their way in the middle with a string of defeats. Delhi should emphasise on retaining the current crop of players, without releasing too many from the core team, in order to perform better next season, in a bid to clinch their maiden IPL title.