Delhi Daredevils have been the perennial under-achievers in the IPL since the start of the first season as they have failed to reach the finals of the tournament even once. In the 2017 edition, they had a good chance of turning their fortunes around as their squad looked good enough to make it to the finals. However, with the absence of JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock, the Daredevils missed two of their batting mainstays and were forced to constantly field an inexperienced batting line-up.
They managed to win a few matches and finished sixth with six wins. However, once again, they tinkered too much with their team combinations and didn’t make the best use of their players throughout the tournament and that proved to be costly for the Zaheer Khan-led side.
With a fresh auction set to take place in 2018, all the players will be going back into the auction pool. The IPL governing council is yet to confirm anything about player retention. When a fresh auction was conducted in 2014, each franchise was given a maximum of five retentions (including the Right to Match card).
Let us take a look at five players Delhi will look to retain for the 2018 IPL assuming that the IPL GC decides to allow five retentions per team.
Extra cover: 5 players who the Royal Challengers Bangalore would like to retain for IPL 2018
#1 Shahbaz Nadeem
When Sunrisers Hyderabad acquired the services of Jharkhand's slow left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in the 2014 IPL auction, Delhi Daredevils used the Right to Match option to buy back the spinner, who was a part of their franchise in the previous season. Nadeem has been very handy for the Daredevils since his IPL debut in 2011 as the spinner has made sure that he has kept the opposition batsmen at bay during the field restriction overs.
Realising his importance, the franchise used one of their five RTMs on him and they won’t hesitate to do so ahead of the 2018 auction as well. Nadeem has been in sensational form in the Indian domestic circuit and became the first bowler to pick up at least 50 wickets in two consecutive Ranji Trophy seasons.
He has been on the national team selectors’ radar for a while and it won’t be a surprise if he gets a call-up to the Indian team in the near future.
In the 2017 IPL, he was not utilised properly as he played only seven matches and picked up six wickets in 18 overs at an economy of just over six. The Delhi team management should look to retain the slow left-armer ahead of the next season, like they did four seasons ago.
#2 Sanju Samson
Ever since making his debut for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, Sanju Samson has looked promising with the bat. When the team was banned for two years, he was bought by Rahul Dravid’s Delhi Daredevils and continued to grow as a batsman under the guidance of the former Indian skipper.
Extra cover: 5 Players Kolkata Knight Riders would want to retain
The 2016 season was a breakthrough one for the youngster from Kerala as he amassed 386 runs in 14 matches at an average of 28 and strike-rate of 141. He also scored a century in the tournament and put an end to the “can’t score runs fast” tag.
He, along with Rishabh Pant, played a key role for Zaheer Khan and his men in the tenth edition. With age on his side and the prospect of representing India at the top level in the near future, Delhi Daredevils will look to retain the right-hander.
#3 Chris Morris
A quality all-rounder is worth so much in any form of the game and in T20s, they are like gold dust. It is a blessing in disguise for a team to have an all-rounder who can bowl four overs whenever he takes the field and score crucial runs with the bat whenever needed.
This is what Delhi Daredevils have got in Chris Morris. Without a shadow of a doubt, Morris has been Daredevils’ best player in the last couple of seasons and it will be a huge blunder if the franchise decides to let him go. He is capable of bowling four overs in every game with at least two of them coming in the death overs and the South African scores his runs at a strike-rate of over 170.
Extra cover: Chris Morris- The underutilised batsman
Letting Morris go will not only be a huge loss for Delhi but also a massive advantage for whichever team manages to pick him up. The Delhi fans will hope that the franchise has learnt from its past mistakes and not release a player of Morris’ calibre ahead of the next season.
#4 Rishabh Pant
One of the brightest spots for Delhi Daredevils in the tenth edition of the IPL was Rishabh Pant. The left-hander has been rated highly by the fans ever since his exploits in the 2016 under-19 World Cup and the 2016-17 domestic season. A lot was expected from him going into the IPL and the wicketkeeper-batsman didn’t disappoint as he scored 366 runs in 14 innings at an average of 26.14 and an extraordinary strike-rate of 166, the second best by a batsman with at least 300 runs.
Extra cover: Rishabh Pant looks like a combination of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, declares Sachin Tendulkar
The left-hander wasn’t used very smartly by the team management as he was made to bat down the order in most of their matches and by the time he was promoted to No. 3, the season was all but over for the Daredevils.
The youngster from Delhi should be made to open the batting so that he can make full use of the field restriction overs and take the attack to the opposition straight away, something at which he has excelled in the past. A player like Pant should be made to face as many balls as possible instead of being wasted away at No. 5.
There were reports that Daredevils’ mentor Rahul Dravid advised the franchise to retain Pant and it remains to be seen whether they take heed of his advice.
#5 Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock is already one of the best batsman going around at the moment. The South African’s growth in the last three years has been sensational and credit should be given to Delhi Daredevils for buying the youngster in the 2013 auction based on his performance in the 2012 under-19 World Cup and the Champions League T20 before he had made a name for himself at the top level.
The way de Kock is progressing, it won’t be a surprise if he becomes as good a limited-overs batsman as Virat Kohli in the near future. The left-hander is already on his way to greatness as he has toppled various records with ease and is in the same bracket as the likes of Kohli, Joe Root, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, David Warner and AB de Villiers,
Signing De Kock was one of the best decisions made by the franchise ever since its inception in 2008 and Delhi should retain him in the next auction instead of releasing him like they did with David Warner, AB de Villiers, and Glenn Maxwell.
Delhi could not avail of his services in this year’s IPL due to a finger injury and they should make sure that their batting line-up revolves around the wicket-keeper batsman irrespective of who they sign in the 2018 IPL auction.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
