About Delhi Daredevils

Dangerous side with abundance of style, that’s what Delhi Daredevils is all about. A stable bowling attack backed up by lethal strikers at the top, makes it a team to look out for. United with the experience of Glenn McGrath and Daniel Vettori, you have a heady cocktail. But their excitement could prove to be their collapse like last season. Watch out for the Sehwag-Gambhir jugalbandi followed by some daredevilry from David Warner

Goa Acquisition: Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah form the heart of England’s T20 squads. They can transform their game according to formats and so look forward to them to come to the bash this time. Collingwood’s medium pacers will give an extra bow to the Durham man, since Shah may struggle to feature in the first XI.

Captain-coach combination: Virender Sehwag can be creative as skipper, has a sharp cricketing brain. This clear-headed cricketer almost led his side all the way to the crown last season. Unluckily, the team misfired at the big stage. The coach Kepler Wessels is from the South Africa even of doubtful men behind the scenes. Kepler can be inventive and come up with unlikely ideas to toss rivals off-guard.

STRENGTHS:

Killer batting order in Sehwag, Gambhir, De Villiers and Warner—all of them in great form. Smart shopping sense during the auctions and they have almost everybody available throughout the IPL. Bowling too is in good health, with the ageless Glenn McGrath, efficient Farveez Maharoof, freakish Dirk Nannes, consistent Daniel Vettori, tireless Amit Mishra and talented Yo Mahesh.

WEAKNESSES:

Same as last year. Top heavy batting order. The likes of Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik have to start firing to allow the dangerous top order to bat freely and attempt to set big targets or chase them down.

OPPORTUNITIES:

For Dirk Nannes to show why he’s a T20 specialist. For David Warner to justify the hype surrounding him and for Umesh Yadav, the Vidarbha quickie, to show that the spell he bowled in the Duleep Trophy to Dravid and Laxman wasn’t a flash in the pan. And for the whole team to banish the inconsistency of last season.

THREATS:

Possibility of the top four suffering a collective failure while trying to bat aggressively.


Owners: GMR Holdings (Indian business house)

Coach: Greg Shipperd (AUS)

Captain: Virender Sehwag (IND)

Players: AB de Villiers (RSA), Andrew McDonald (AUS), Daniel Vettori (NZL), David Warner (AUS), Dirk Nannes (AUS), Farveez Maharoof (SRI), Glenn McGrath (AUS), Owais Shah (ENG), Paul Collingwood (ENG), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SRI). Virender Sehwag, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir.