IPL 2022: Predicting first-choice overseas players for Delhi Capitals

Ever since the Delhi franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL) overhauled its team and even the name, its journey has been more exciting. Delhi Capitals or DC (the current name) has made the last four of the tournament for three consecutive years and in 2020, they made the finals where they lost to Mumbai Indians.

Led by India wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, the DC are also a force to reckon in the 2022 edition of the tournament kicking off on March 26. They brought 19 players in the mega auction for the 2022 edition held in February and have put into a place a formidable unit that can bring them their maiden trophy. They retained four players, including Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, and Anrich Nortje, one of their seven overseas players.

Who would the Capitals pick among their foreign players as starters in the tournament? Ace Australia opening batter David Warner, who returned to the squad this year, is a certainty as he is capable of smashing any opponent to smithereens. Who will be the other three that DC will settle for?

Here, we predict Delhi Capitals’ four best foreign players for IPL 2022

1. David Warner

The dashing opener parted ways with Sunrisers Hyderabad, the franchise who he had led to the title victory in 2016, and returned to his old team in the 2022 mega auction. The 35-year-old left-handed batter went through some turmoil in his international career a few years ago and also lost the captaincy of Hyderabad. Last year, he had a poor season in which he could score 195 runs in eight games at an average of 24.37, much lower than his tournament average of 41 plus. He even lost his place in the playing XI at one point.

But just as form is temporary and class is permanent, Warner made an emphatic comeback in the T20 World Cup last year. He smashed 289 runs in seven games at an average of 48-plus and strike rate of 146.70, higher than that in his T20 international career. He was adjudged the player of the series. DC picked him for Rs 6.25 crore at the auction and now his franchise and fans expect him to make a grand return to IPL as well.

Warner has played 150 matches in the IPL in which he scored nearly 5.5k runs. During his stint with Delhi earlier (2009-13), he made 1,435 runs in 55 matches with two hundreds and 10 fifties. This year, he is set to open Delhi’s innings with Shaw and that would be a deadly combination on any day.

2. Mitchell Marsh

Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh is set to miss the first few matches in IPL 2022 as he is part of his national squad touring Pakistan at the moment (Warner has been rested for the limited-over matches in Pakistan).

When he returns to the IPL, the 30-year-old Marsh will certainly be a first-choice pick for the Capitals. Marsh has not been a big name in the Indian T20 tournament, thanks to injuries and poor form (he pulled out of the last year’s edition). After making his debut in the tournament in 2010, Marsh has managed to play only 21 games in which he scored 225 runs and took 20 wickets. His strike rate in the IPL has been around 114 and bowling average of 21.

Yet, Marsh is somebody the Capitals will be keenly looking up to. He was picked by Delhi for Rs 6.5 crore, more than that paid for Warner, thanks to his good form of late. In the final of the T20 World Cup final, Marsh hit 77 off 50 balls in the final against New Zealand. In the Big Bash League as well, he slammed almost 350 runs for Perth Scorchers at a strike rate of almost 143. He is also a handy bowler who has 66 wickets in T20s at an average of 26.25. In 137 games, he has made 3,241 runs at a strike rate of 129-plus.

With two in-form Australian white-ball specialists in their ranks, Delhi can hope to beat any opponent in the tournament.

3. Rovman Powell

West Indian hitman Rovman Powell is another overseas player that the Capitals bought this year for Rs 2.8 crore. The 28-year-old Jamaican has played 39 T20 internationals and has a strike rate of more than 138. He recently slammed a T20I hundred against England in Bridgetown and scored a fifty in one of the T20I matches in India.

The man has played more than 100 T20 matches and the fact that three franchises, including Delhi, Lucknow, and Chennai, battled to purchase the Jamaican batter who also bowls medium pace shows that people are giving importance to him as a prospect. At one point, Chennai was leading the bid with Rs 1.5 crore for the player who had set his base price at Rs 75 lakh but Delhi was determined to have him in their ranks and eventually took him.

Rovman was in the Kolkata Knight Riders for some years but was benched for the entire debut season in 2017 even though many called him “Junior Andre Russell”. It is now up to Delhi to see whether the man really fulfills the expectations.

4. Anrich Nortje

Delhi’s choice for Anrich Nortje in place of his compatriot Kagiso Rabada has raised quite a few eyebrows but the move might not be without a basis. The fact is Rabada served the Capitals well over the seasons but yet the franchise went after a relatively inexperienced Nortje for Rs 6.5 crore because of some relevant reasons.

Nortje, a 28-year-old right-arm fast bowler, has picked 83 wickets in 65 matches and at the moment, he is in very good form. He has the ability to make early strikes regularly. In the five of the eight games he played during IPL 2021, the South African picked at least one wicket in the powerplay. In the T20 World Cup last year as well, Nortje had a great time with a strike rate and economy that would make his competitors envious.

Nortje has also the potential to prove his worth in the death-over bowling. Rabada had fallen behind Nortje on these skills at the moment and that is perhaps the reason why the Capitals chose to pick him. Nortje has played in 24 matches in two seasons of the IPL in which he took 34 wickets.