IPL: Top 5 purchases made by the Delhi Daredevils over the years

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Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag

The Delhi Daredevils, now rechristened as the Delhi Capitals, have been the perennial under-achievers of the IPL. They are one of very few teams that have still not made it to the final, and this is despite the fact that they have had some of the greatest players of the game in their line up.

During the 2008 season, Delhi had the likes of Virender Shewag, Gautam Gambhir, AB de Villiers and Glenn Mcgrath in their team, but still failed to make it to the semi finals. The 2009 season was a mini-success, as Delhi topped the points table, but they were undone by a masterclass from Adam Gilchrist in the semi-finals.

During the 2012 season, a well balanced squad helped Delhi clinch the top spot in the points table. But some poor decisions by the team management in the qualifiers derailed their campaign.

Delhi finished at the bottom of the table in 2013 and 2014. The rest of the campaigns were also not of much joy for the Daredevils.

Their team management has made some questionable decisions at the previous auctions. They paid a huge amount of 12.5 crore for Dinesh Karthik in 2014, while the relatively unknown Pawan Negi was acquired for a massive amount of 8.5 crore in 2016. Both the players failed to justify their price tags.

However, Delhi have also made some intelligent buys over the years in the form of David Warner, Chris Morris and Quinton de Kock. Let us take a look at the top 5 buys by Delhi in their IPL history.

5. Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer has been with the Delhi Daredevils for quite some time now. He was signed in 2015 for an amount of 2.6 crore INR, which was a big amount for an uncapped player.

Iyer has justified his price tag over the years with some fine knocks for Delhi. He announced himself on the big stage in stunning fashion, accumulating 439 runs during the inaugural season with four 50s to his name. He was named as the emerging player of the tournament during 2015.

Iyer was very disappointing during the next season, making just 30 runs from 6 outings. Bit his performances improved during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

The team management was so impressed with his calm head that they named him captain in the middle of the 2018 season. From a rookie to the youngest captain in the league, Iyer has come really far in a very short span of time.

4. Morne Morkel

Morne Morkel
Morne Morkel

Morne Morkel was signed by the Delhi Daredevils in 2011, and the tall pacer from South Africa enjoyed great success with them.

Morkel remained in Delhi till 2013, and picked up 45 wickets. He was also the leading wicket taker during the 2012 season in which Delhi topped the points table.

Morkel along with Umesh Yadav were the mainstays of Delhi’s bowling attack. The South African was very effective in the death overs, and his wide yorkers worked wonders during the 2012 season.

However, in what can be termed as one of the biggest blunders in the history of the IPL, Morkel was dropped from the playing XI for the second qualifier against Chennai. The move expectedly backfired, as Chennai amassed a whopping 222 runs and handily defeated Delhi.

Morkel failed to replicate his success during the 2013 season, picking up just 8 wickets from 10 matches. He was then released ahead of the 2014 auctions by the Daredevils.

3. Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag

The ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ was a marquee player for the Delhi Daredevils during the inaugural season of the IPL. He was also named their captain for that season.

Sehwag racked up 406 runs during the 2008 season at a healthy strike rate of 184. The “Jai-Veeru” ki jodi (Gambhir-Sehwag) worked wonders for Delhi in the initial few seasons.

Sehwag was at his belligerent best for the Daredevils, slamming more than 2000 runs for the team. He is also, still, the leading run scorer for the team.

Although he could not do much of note during the highly successful campaign of 2009, he was instrumental in leading Delhi to the playoffs in 2012, a season in which he scored nearly 500 runs.

With growing age, Sehwag’s hand-eye coordination deteriorated, which resulted in a pretty poor season with the bat in 2013. Thereafter, he was released by the Daredevils before being acquired by the Kings XI Punjab during the 2014 auctions.

Delhi have tried many openers at the top since then, but no one has been able to replicate Sehwag’s heroics so far.

2. Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra
Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra made his debut for India in 2003, but was unlucky not to play regularly at international level as he was dropped in favour of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. Mishra is easily the best leg spinner to emerge from India during the last decade.

He represented Delhi during the first three seasons of the IPL before being bought by the Deccan Chargers in 2011. He then had a homecoming of sorts in 2015 after being bought by Delhi again for 3.5 crore.

Mishra is the leading wicket-taker for the Daredevils with 86 wickets, and has delivered many match-winning spells for them. He also has three hat-tricks to his name in the IPL: one each for the Daredevils, Deccan Chargers and the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The fact that Mishra was played ahead of Imran Tahir in some of the matches during the 2016 season shows how important he was for the Daredevils. The 36-year-old picked up 12 wickets in the 2018 edition as well, at an impressive economy of just 7 runs per over.

1. Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant is on course to becoming one of the greats of the game. The diminutive left-hander from Delhi is highly regarded in the cricketing circles, and the power with which he smashes the ball around the park is a treat for the eyes.

Delhi acquired his services in 2016 for 1.9 crore, and he has been retained by the team management ever since. Pant already has more than 1,200 runs to his name at an impressive average of 35 for the Daredevils.

He was fantastic during the 2018 edition of the IPL, scoring almost 700 runs, only behind Kane Williamson in the top run scorers’ list. His sensational knock of 128 runs against the Sunrisers Hyderabad is the highest individual score by any Daredevils batsman.

Pant has all the strokes in his repertoire, and he just needs to have a calm head on his shoulders to gain even more success. With age on his side, Pant is likely to light up the IPL in plenty of upcoming years as well, and might just help Delhi clinch that elusive IPL title.

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Edited by Musab Abid