Can Delhi Daredevils Deliver After Yet Another Overhaul?

With oldies Yuvraj Singh & Zaheer Khan in the new-look team, can Delhi pulled off a coup this season?

As the cricketers will tell you, finishing at the bottom of the pack two years in a row is not easy to stomach. And the Delhi Daredevils have altered pretty much everything to avoid yet another ignominious performance.

In the past few years, they have overhauled the team. They’ve changed the captain and coach. They’ve even changed their jerseys. But the Delhi franchise have failed to climb even one ranking spot up the IPL totem pole.

So will 2015 be any different?

The team went into the auction this February with the biggest purse and also the most empty slots to fill, having let off big name players Kevin Pietersen, Ross Taylor, Dinesh Karthik and Wayne Parnell.

Golden Oldies?

Out went the 30-something players but they have not been replaced by a younger lot. A massive Rs 16 crore was spent on 33-year-old Yuvraj Singh, and Rs 4 crore for 36-year-old Zaheer Khan. 

Yuvraj Singh was left out of the Indian World Cup squad earlier this year despite three back-to-back centuries in the Ranji Trophy. 

“It’s been a couple of hard years for me since I have come back from my treatment. I have worked very hard and I have had a good domestic season. I am confident of doing well and hope that things get better from here”

- Yuvraj Singh, Delhi Daredevils

While Yuvraj may have only a few good years left in him, the purchase of Zaheer for Rs 4 crore has baffled a few.

However coach Gary Kirsten was quick to come to the 36-year old’s defense. “Experience is the one word. He would be working in a space with some good youngsters around. I want him to play a kind of mentoring role within the team. He obviously wants to keep playing and has some aspirations in his game. He is aware that he needs to prove his worth. He has great experience and good ideas of T20 bowling,” said the former Indian coach.

No Angelo in Opener

Even as the team, led by JP Duminy, set their sights on a better finish this year, their campaign will have to start without one of their big names.

Ranked third among ICC’s all-rounders, Angelo Mathews will not play the team’s opener in Chennai on Thursday with the local association preferring to keep Sri Lankan players away from Tamil Nadu for political considerations. That doesn’t mean the team isn’t upset about having to leave out the Sri Lankan skipper.

“Definitely it is a setback because he is not bought for a small money. He was bought for 1.2 million dollars. If it becomes that one player cannot play in a particular match it will be a setback for any team not only us,” said TA Sekhar, the team’s mentor.

Off Season Switches

Auction Buys: Yuvraj Singh(Rs 16 crore), Angelo Mathews (Rs 7.5 crore), Zaheer Khan (4 crore), Amit Mishra (Rs 3 crore), Gurinder Sandhu (Rs 1.7 crore), Shreyas Iyer (Rs 2.6 crore), Jaydev Unadkat (Rs 1.1 crore), Domnic Joseph Muthuswamy (Rs 75 lakhs), Albie Morkel (Rs 30 lakhs), Travis Head (Rs 30 lakhs), Marcus Stoinis (Rs 25 lakhs), C.M. Gautam (Rs 20 lakhs), Kona Srikar Bharat (Rs 10 lakhs), K.K. Jiyaz (Rs 10 lakhs).

Retained Players: Jean-Paul Duminy(C), Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Mohammad Shami, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton De Kock, Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mayank Agarwal, Imran Tahir, Jayant Yadav.

Released Players: Dinesh Karthik, HS Sharath, James Neesham, Jaydev Unadkat, Kevin Pietersen, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Milind Kumar, Murali Vijay, Rahul Sharma, Rahul Shukla, Ross Taylor, Siddarth Kaul, Wayne Parnell.