IPL 2019: 3 vital departments Delhi Daredevils need to strengthen during the auction

Delhi Daredevils is one of the three teams who have played all the IPL seasons but not won a single title so far.

They haven't even reached finals in any of the 11 seasons. DD struggled throughout the 11 years of IPL despite having some superstars like Gautam Gambhir, AB de Villiers, Virender Sehwag, David Warner across these years.

Delhi always had problems in getting the right combination of players. Their failure in IPL auctions is one of the key factors for their on-field struggle.

Can DD correct their yesteryear off-field failures before the season begins?

They have done a smart move by bringing in Shikhar Dhawan from Sunrisers Hyderabad. Despite playing predominantly well last season, Delhi missed various key moments due to the inexperienced batting line-up.

With Dhawan, they have a dependable opening batsman with loads of experience to guide the young DD batting unit.

Here is the list of three key departments DD has to strengthen during the IPL auction to challenge the title this time.

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#1 Wicket-keeper: Minimum requirement one

Pant's International exposure has shown us that he is still not a finished product

Rishabh Pant came to limelight in IPL 2018 through his explosive batting. He amassed 684 runs from just 14 innings and came second in the list of leading run-scorers.

Pant replicated his IPL success in Test matches. However, he struggled majorly in the shorter formats as he couldn't make any major scores. Also, his wicket-keeping is still a work in progress.

DD has only Naman Ojha as his back-up. The 35-year-old played just one game last season scoring one run. He may even be released this season so that Delhi can look for a well established wicket-keeping batsman.

Delhi can shortlist few explosive and experienced wicket-keeping batsmen like Jonny Bairstow, Mushfiqur Rahim, Luke Ronchi to add depth to their batting line-up.

#2 Spin-bowler: Minimum requirement two

Time for DD to find a spin leader - Amit Mishra is not as threatening as he used to be

Delhi has swapped their three players - Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Nadeem - with Sunrisers Hyderabad to get the service of Shikhar Dhawan.

They are in a need to replace Shahbaz Nadeem with another spinner as they only have Amit Mishra and in-experienced Rahul Tewatia in their squad.

Amit Mishra's IPL performance has waned a bit as he was not so threatening last season. Despite taking 12 wickets from 10 games, he couldn't tilt many games in DD's favor like previous years.

With the age not on his side, he may even consider his retirement soon. Delhi is in need of a spin bowling leader.

Delhi can look to revamp their spin bowling department completely by focusing on fresh faces.

Players like Adam Zampa, Ashton Agar, Tabrez Shamsi, U-19 sensation Siddharth Desai can bring new ideas and variety to Delhi bowling line-up.

With their fast bowling department very strong, its important for DD to get the right spinners to compliment their fast bowlers.

#3 All-rounders: Minimum requirement two

DD are in shortage of all-rounders after losing Abhishek Sharma and Vijay Shankar to SRH

Delhi Daredevils have lost two key all-rounders - Abhishek Sharma and Vijay Shankar - to SRH in pursuit of Shikhar Dhawan.

Both Abhishek and Vijay showed a glimpse of their talent last season. It's a surprising decision from DD because India hardly produces quality all-rounders and losing two at a time will be a major blow for them.

DD should look for all-rounders who can bring stability to the lower middle order and variation in the bowling department.

Zimbabwean all-rounders like Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza will be best fit to the team as they are in great form and also doesn't have world cup commitments this time. Also, all-rounders like Ben Cutting, Isuru Udana, Cameron Delport have done a great job during APL.

DD should take the leaf out of CSK's strategy where their all-rounders Shane Watson, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo have brought great balance to CSK's playing XI. It's imperative to invest good money in all-rounders to have a successful campaign.

If DD can fix the mentioned departments during IPL auction, they have a good chance to beat the odds and win the title this time.