The INDIAN
T20 LEAGUE 2020 auction is inching closer, and all the team owners are set for
the bidding war. It will be interesting to see how each franchise will approach the auction. Whether they will go for experienced players or will they opt for young talents?
This year’s IPL auction will have a total of 73 slots,
of which 29 could be foreign players. This
year's auction is the last one before the franchises disband and prepare to
assemble fresh squads from 2021 at a mega auction.
All the
franchises have prepared their strategies to pick the best players in the
upcoming auction.
Today, we
shall be looking at the strategies of Delhi ahead of the big auction.
We have done
an in-depth analysis of Delhi focusing on the areas they need to strengthen and
the players they need to bid for.
Delhi
Delhi was one
team that constantly chopped and changed their team every season, but still it
failed to result in an upturn of performance. They bring in big coaches, big
players, successful captains but somehow, they end up in the bottom four. However,
things changed in the last season.
Last season,
in the presence of Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly along with a new captain
Shreyas Iyer, the young guns stepped up and the revamped team qualified for the
playoffs for the first time in seven years. Delhi ended their campaign with a third-place
finish, which is by far their best performance in the INDIAN T20 LEAGUE since
2012.
Delhi has released
nine players ahead of the auctions and has already added two prominent players
in the squad. The team traded in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane and looks
formidable ahead of the auction.
List of retained and released players
Retained: Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar
Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Sandeep
Lamichhane, Kagiso Rabada, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, R Ashwin,
Ajinkya Rahane.
Released: Chris Morris, Colin Ingram, B Ayyappa,
Hanuma Vihari, Jalaj Saxena, Manjot Kalra, Nathu Singh, Ankush Bains and Colin
Munro.
Available Slots: 11
Foreign Players slot: 5
Purse remaining: INR 27.85 crore
Areas of concern
- Lack of Finishers
Delhi’s
top order did well last year and the middle order also came good but the team
lacked a proper finisher. Last year, DC couldn’t finish few games and that’s
why there is a need to look at the finisher’s role more closely ahead of the
auctions.
- Specialist Bowler
Apart
from Kagiso Rabada, Delhi will need another world class pacer. Last year,
Rabada got injured in the crucial stages of the league and the team got
eliminated in the playoffs. Ishant impressed in bursts last time, but he has
not played much in the shorter format. Delhi will look to buy overseas pacers
in the auction.
Players Delhi might target
Overseas: Pat Cummins, Andrew Tye, Ben Cutting, Chris
Jordan, Colin de Grandhomme
Indian: Yashasvi Jaiswal, R Sai Kishore, Priyam Garg.
