6. Zaheer Khan: Delhi Daredevils – 6/10
The Delhi Daredevils setup saw an interesting combination this season. While they banked on young blood to take them through to success in the league, they also depended upon some of the canny senior men to guide the aforementioned youngsters. The team that was led by Zaheer Khan and was coached and mentored by Rahul Dravid and Paddy Upton, played inspiring, fearless cricket, but couldn’t push the bar any higher as they failed to qualify for the playoffs.
One of the reasons behind such a show can be the youngsters’ lack of experience, but perhaps one of the major reasons, in popular opinion, and something that the Daredevils deployed as a tactic and stood by it throughout the tournament was the continuous tinkering with the playing eleven. The Daredevils never featured the same playing XI for two or more consecutive matches this season and always kept using the practice of horses for courses, something that did more harm than good. As good as some of the moves on the field were, Zaheer Khan’s off-field planning left many of the fans disappointed.
Ironically, the most prolific performers with the bat for the team were the men who played most of the team’s games. Quinton de Kock, Sanju Samson, and Karun Nair played 13, 14 and 14 games respectively, and were the top three run scorers for the side. Amit Mishra, their highest wicket-taker this season, also played all 14 games. This goes on to prove that had they played with a settled side throughout the tournament instead of continuously shuffling the players, there would have been more such performances and would have helped the team’s cause.
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