IPL 2022: 3 Players Delhi Capitals (DC) should've retained instead of the current retentions

Ever since Delhi Daredevils became Delhi Capitals, the performance of the team on the points table also changed. In the last three years, the Capitals have qualified for the playoffs on all three occasions and came out as runner-up during the 2020 season. During the last season, Delhi finished in the first position in the points table and then lost both the qualifier and the eliminator game.

The IPL auction is an event that not every team has understood properly and Delhi was one such team that made some of the blunders during the auction in the initial years. However, since 2018, the think tank actually took decisions that made a lot of sense.

Before the upcoming IPL Auction, Delhi decided to retain Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Axar Patel, and Anrich Nortje. But, there were a few more players whom the team could have retained instead of these four.

In this list, let’s take a look at such three players who Delhi Capitals should have retained instead of current retentions.

1. Kagiso Rabada

Delhi Capitals had to choose between Kagiso Rabada and Nortje, and the team went ahead with the latter one. Nortje had joined the team in 2020 to replace Chris Woakes, but Rabada was a part of the team since 2017. He has taken 76 wickets in 50 matches at an average of 20.52 and an economy of 8.21 for the franchise.

Rabada didn’t feature in the 2018 season of the league after suffering a lower back stress fracture. Delhi had used the Right to Match card during that year’s auction to pick him for INR 4.2 crores. Delhi decided to retain Rabada before the 2019 auction and he proved his worth by picking 25 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 14.72.

The best of Rabada came during the 2020 season when he picked 30 wickets in 17 matches at an average of 18.26 and won the purple cap for picking the most number of wickets. Rabada’s form depleted during the 2021 season as he finished the campaign with 15 wickets in 15 matches and that might have been the reason he was not retained by the franchise.

2. Marcus Stoinis

Marcus Stoinis was first drafted into Delhi’s team in 2015 as he was picked for INR 25 lakh, but he didn’t get to play a single game before getting released. He joined the Delhi team again in 2020 after they picked him for INR 4.8 crores from his base price of INR one crore. Stoinis previously played three seasons for Kings XI Punjab and one for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In his debut season for the Capitals, Stoinis made 352 runs in 17 matches at an average of 25.14 and a strike rate of 148.52. He picked 13 wickets at an average of 21.76, and an economy of 9.53. Stoinis made three half-centuries in the season and was regarded as one of the top all-rounders once the season ended.

However, a hamstring injury during the UAE leg of the 2021 season made sure that Stoinis was not able to repeat his previous year’s heroics. Stoinis could make only 89 runs in ten matches and picked two wickets and hence, was released by the franchise.

Stoinis played a match-winning knock of 40 runs off 31 balls against Pakistan in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup which Australia won by five wickets and it proves that Stoinis is a big-match player.

3. Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer started his IPL career with the Delhi team in 2015 when he was picked for INR 2.6 crores making him the highest-earning uncapped player in that year’s auction. Iyer made 439 runs in his first IPL season at an average of 33.76 and a strike rate of 128.36. He even won the Emerging Player Award for this performance.

In 2018, Iyer was made the captain of the team replacing Gautam Gambhir and he became the youngest captain to lead the Delhi franchise in IPL. With the bat, he made 411 runs at an average of 37.36 and was amongst the leading run-scorers in the season. Under Iyer’s leadership, Delhi qualified for the playoffs in 2019 after seven years and then in the final in 2020 for the very first time.

In 2021, Iyer was ruled out of the tournament due to an injury he sustained while playing for India. Pant was named the captain of the team during the India leg of IPL 2021. Iyer returned during the UAE leg, but the franchise decided to go ahead with Pant.

He is a player who can be the backbone of the middle-order of any franchise and his captaincy experience makes him one of the players to watch out during the upcoming IPL auction.