Delhi Daredevils - A look at the franchise's record in IPL and is this 'the' year for DD?

Season 6

The owners of the Delhi Daredevils and all its players who were part of this season, would like to forget this season because all it did was – demoralize the team and franchisee further and further. Even though this season saw the incoming of cricketing great, Sir Viv Richards into the squad as their brand ambassador, Jeremy Snape being added to the support staff and renowned ‘Mushi’ Mushtaq Ahmed, the widely popular spin bowler from Pakistan been added to the squad as the spin bowling coach, the performances on the field were just not satisfactory enough to do justice to this solid team staff.

Mushtaq Ahmed and Viv Richards

Out of the 16 matches that the team played, they could only manage 3 wins which if compared to the last season, greatly shattered the hopes of the owners and fans – this is Delhi Daredevil’s worst performance in all the 6 seasons – post this, their worst was the 4^th season, in which they managed to secure 1 more win as compared to this season, meaning that they won 4 matches and in this season, they could only manage to win 3.

This was all that this season had in store for Delhi Daredevils fans, many negatives and only a glimpse of positivity i.e. cricketing greats joining the team staff.

Season 7 – Is this Delhi Daredevil’s year?

Season 6 can be referred to as Delhi Daredevils’ ‘worst season in the IPL’. After a dismissal show last season, the franchisee was forced to make some tough decisions and so, coming to the auctions of IPL season 7 (2014), the franchisee decided to retain none of its players from the earlier seasons and go all out on buying new players and building a whole new franchisee.

Daredevils retained no players, they came into the auction with a ‘full purse’ i.e. Rs 600 million (approx US$9.6).

The intention from the Delhi franchisee was clear, the players that they wanted in the side, they were willing to go all out and pay as much as needed to get them into the side and therefore, there were many high bidding from this franchise in the 2014 IPL auctions.

The 2^nd highest bid of this year’s auction was for Dinesh Karthik, who was purchase by Delhi Daredevils for a whopping 12cr. It’s very crucial to have a good WK in the side (local) that can bat a bit and guide the team during the important stages of the match. Karthik’s last 1 year even though has seen him in and out of the Indian team but still, his performance in last year’s Champions Trophy will certainly boost his morals coming into this year’s IPL.

On paper, Delhi Daredevil’s squad with a whole new look gives the fans a sense of positivity. All the players are new to the side and this should certainly benefit the franchise – each player would be looking to justify the owner’s bidding on them and stand successful on the confidence that the owner’s have shown in them.

Of course though, there’s a flip side to the coin – new players means a whole new bunch of players playing together, which means that it will take some time for the players to get comfortable around each other. But that’s something every franchisee will have to tackle this year. Each franchisee has many new player’s in it’s side and for today’s cricketers who play all around the world (international and domestic cricket), it shouldn’t be a big task to mingle around with fellow cricketers, even from other countries.

Is the aggressive captain in Pietersen, just what the franchisee was looking for, all these seasons?

Delhi Daredevils will be led by Kevin Pietersen in this year’s IPL. Regardless of Pietersen stressing on the fact that he’s not here in the IPL ‘to prove critics wrong’ – we as fans, wouldn’t mind if he opts for the way of scoring runs and answering his critics back. This remains to be seen though. The question is – can Pietersen’s aggressive captaincy guide the team to glory? That’s for you to decide.