Following a six-year hiatus from the playoffs between 2013-2018, the GMR-co-owned team made the postseason three times on the trot between 2019-2021. Following the 2021 Mega Auction, the Rishabh Pant-led side has endured a couple of torrid seasons with their skipper missing out on the last edition. With the wicketkeeper-batter cleared to return for the franchise, will it help the Capitals make another playoff appearance or even more? While only time can answer that question, we will try to analyse DC’s squad and identify how they stack up across the 22 yards of a cricket pitch.
Short length – The factors that could bump out the franchise
The Delhi Capitals have always boasted a dynamic top-five batting for the past half-decade. The likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, and Rishabh Pant, among others, have been brilliant for the franchise. However, the team lacked firepower in the lower middle order last edition, resulting in not scoring enough in the slog overs consistently.
Having finished second-last on the league table with ten points from 14 matches, the Capitals had the worst average of 13.37 in the slog overs. They could score only 508 runs in 14 matches at a 128.93 strike rate in Pant’s absence. While Axar Patel’s improved batting contributed 283 runs in 13 innings, he was nowhere near to David Warner’s 516 runs at the top. It was Pant who single-handedly struck at 212.8 in IPL 2022 leading to decent slog over numbers with the team finishing fifth.
The 26-year-old’s absence forced the Capitals’ management to seek new wicketkeeper-batter options, but none filled his void perfectly. Now that he is back for the upcoming season, Pant is supposed to play as a pure batter therefore leaving the wicketkeeper’s spot to be filled again.
While DC management widened their wicketkeeping options by bagging Kumar Kushagra, Ricky Bhui, Shai Hope, and Tristan Stubbs in the auction, all of them lacked enough IPL exposure. From the keeping options they have, Porel, Bhui, and Stubbs together have summed up just 67 runs across ten IPL innings while Hope and Kushagra are yet to debut in the glitterati event.
Good length – The well of assets that the team can bank on
Robust bowling unit
One of the positives about the Capitals is their spin combination of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel with the former being a much-evolved bowler since his return from a knee injury a couple of years ago. The wrist spinner has scalped 44 wickets from 25 innings with an impressive bowling average of 22.27 across formats in the 2023/24 season. He has often flummoxed the opposition with the change in variations – leg break, googly, and the topspin.
Axar has been a great partner to Kuldeep during the middle overs, while the former also operated the powerplay phases efficiently in IPL 2023. With a bowling strike rate of 20.53 during the middle overs phase, the Capitals had the second-best economy of 8.05 in the tournament, just bettered by the Lucknow Super Giants.
The spin department was also complemented well by the pacers and the department is likely to be spearheaded by Anrich Nortje and Mukesh Kumar. Having mastered the knuckleball, the former was phenomenal with his change of pace; he bowled 16 dot balls in a four-over quota against the Kolkata Knight Riders in a close-fought victory.
Mukesh, who was an uncapped bowler then, emerged through the ranks on the back of his impressive IPL performance and went on to make his India debut in 23 matches across all three formats. Moreover, his three pin-point yorkers in the final over helped the Capitals defend 13 runs against Marco Jansen and Washington Sundar, thereby making him a great asset in the death-over phase as well.
Although the Capitals lost Lungi Ngidi due to an injury, the likes of Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Jhye Richardson, Rasikh Salem, Mitch Marsh and Sumit Kumar add enough depth to their pace unit.
Full length – Hit or Miss aspects of the team
Openers form
There shouldn’t be any doubt on Prithvi Shaw and David Warner forming a threatening tag team at the top of the Delhi Capitals batting order. However, the numbers in the past tell a different story altogether. Having scored 106 runs from ten innings, Shaw had a horrendous IPL 2023 outing with the Capitals. Since being dropped from the national side, he has also blown hot and cold on the domestic circuit before making a Ranji Trophy appearance after missing Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare tournaments due to a knee injury.
On the flip side, the Aussie veteran had a good time with the bat last year, smashing 516 runs from 14 games with a strike rate of 131.63. Despite retiring from the red ball format in January 2023, the 37-year-old showcased his brilliance in the white ball format, scoring 205 runs from four innings with a belligerent strike rate of 165.32 in 2024.
But as exciting an opening prospect as they look on paper, Shaw and Warner together have failed to live up to the expectations in the past couple of IPL seasons. However, with the Mumbaikar scoring 451 runs in six innings at an average of 50.11, there’s a hope of the desired result.
Yorker– The lethal X-factors
Mitch Marsh 2.0
The recent recipient of the Allan Border medal in the 2024 Australian Cricket Awards, Mitchell Marsh has grown into a mature cricketer by leaps and bounds. The 32-year-old can win matches with both bat and ball, and his recent captaincy stint in T20Is has only bettered his cricketing mindset.
Previously, while batting in the middle order, Marsh’s best with the willow came at No.3, with a batting average of 43.16 and a strike rate of 143.86. Having stockpiled 441 runs in ten innings at an average of 49, the Attadale-born had a sumptuous World Cup 2023 outing in India.
Marsh had a mixed IPL season last year with 128 runs and 12 wickets from nine matches with his 39-ball 63 coupled with four-for against SRH being the highlighted performance. As he had a great 2023-24 season with the national team, it’s expected that Marsh gets to transcend his good form into the IPL level.
Beamer – Where the team could completely lose the plot
The Arun Jaitley Stadium is a tough problem to crack. The venue generally has two types of pitches with one of them being a slow turner where the batters face difficulty to score runs and the spinners and medium pacers enjoy. The other surface is a belter of a track which was used during the 2023 World Cup, and plenty of runs were scored. A total of 754 runs were piled up in the first match of WC 2023 here between South Africa and Sri Lanka. A few weeks later, Australia stockpiled 399 in an innings against the Netherlands.
On the flip side, the IPL 2023 recorded low to moderate scores at the very same venue with the Capitals winning just two matches out of their seven home games. Not a single innings had runs over 200 with 175 as the average first innings total. Interestingly, the 2024 Women’s Premier League saw a similar pattern where few matches saw low-scoring totals while the rest produced run-feast. This versatile nature of the home venue could play for or against the Capitals any time on any given day.
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