IPL 2018 - Series 4 ( The Young Bloods)

IPL 2018 - Series 4 ( The Young Bloods) 

To read the previous posts of this series, click the below links

https://palmscript.blogspot.com/2018/03/ipl-2018-series-2-lions-den.html

https://palmscript.blogspot.com/2018/03/ipl-2018-series-3-lions-den-continuation.html

                      DELHI DAREDEVILS

                                                       Coach : Ricky Ponting

                                    What will happen if one of best captain of world and one of the best captain of IPL put their hands together for a trophy??? and the result is the Delhi Daredevils 2018 team. With lot of expectations the team consisting of more young players gonna play under the captain Gautam Gambhir, the man who made all KKR fans proud by won two IPL trophies. Its a quite surprise for every KKR fans at the time of players retention list why they didnt retain their best captain??? We heard lot of gossips like there is a deal between Gautam and DD for this year IPL. No more surprise in that because gautam started his IPL career with Delhi daredevils team under the captaincy of his best opening pair Viru. Whatever the gossip may be but all gambhir fans definitely will celebrate his return to the team DD. 

                         Just take a look over the performance of DD in IPL history. Their best is finished three times in qualifier round 2008,2009 and 2012. Except these every year they are satisfying with the round robin itself. They had lot of captains like Viru, Gauti, Duminy, Zak etc., still they are eagerly waiting for their first cup. Every time they are facing problem atleast in one area like if they had a best captain the problem with coach or team, if they had a best team they are not getting a best captain. But this time they had an aggressive captain, young talented players, experienced finishers and best coach for guidance. lets see their chances to win IPL Trophy this year.

                       At the end of IPL auction 2018 DD bought 25 players including the 3 players which they already retained. Apart from the retended players like Shreyas Iyer, Rishab Pant and Chris Morris, team Delhi has picked many aggressive players like Gambhir, Roy, Maxwell, Rabada, Shami, Munro, Mishra etc., Now they having 10 Bowlers, 9 Batsmen and 6 All-rounders in their team. and Here is the army

The Classic Openers

                          Daredevils having plenty of good opening batsmen. The captain Gautam Gambhir, English hitter Jason Roy, Indian U19 captain Prithvi Shaw and Indian U19 Opener Manjot Kalra. Recently team India won the Under 19 world cup against Australia in final. Everyone focused their eyes on the coach Rahul Dravid, he is the one encouraging and finding the young talents. Because of him only now Prithvi Shaw and Manjot Kalra were in the opening batsman  race.

                         Gautam Gambhir, the veteran Indian opener now the captain of Delhi Daredevils. As everyone knows about his performance in IPL history. Just take a look back, he started his IPL career as Delhi player and moved to Kolkata Knight Riders. He ride the knights and get two IPL trophies became one of the best captain in IPL history. Not only as a captain he is one of the top most highest run getter in IPL and sharing a record of most fifties with Suresh Raina. Again he back to DD with lot of challenges, the team owner expecting the same magic from him that he did for KKR. Being an left hander he is the perfect choice for opening batsman. The team need to find a perfect partner for him to play in top order. 

                        Jason Roy, england T20 specialist was in great form in recent times. Roy scored a furious knock of 180 runs against australia in January 2018.He is not new for IPL as he already played for team gujarat lions and showed some fireworks. The right handed batsman is one of the dangerous player in powerplays. If he starts the innings with gambhir, gambhir will provide a steady start and he can play without fear. Then audience can expect lot of balls coming towards them. But the only problem is being an overseas player his position is not sure in playing XI. Based on the opponent team and pitch he can get chances to play in XI.

                       

                  Prithvi Shaw, the local mumbai boy was just 19 now but his records more than his age. The young man was now extremely happy because of winning under-19 worldcup for India as a captain. He joins in the captains list with yuvaraj singh, virat and unmukth chand. There is one more surprising fact about him this guy is a right hand batsman and right hand off spin bowler similar to sachin.  Moreover he scored 540 runs in harris shield elite division which is the highest individual score at that time until Pranav Dhanawade broke this with his 1000 runs. This young talent can play with gauti as opener for Delhi in few matches.

                Manjot Kalra, another young boy from Under 19 Indian worldcup team. BCCI will never forget this guy why?? because of his century in world cup finals India beat Australia and became champions for fourth time. He is the opener of Indian U19 team and he can play like prithvi shaw. We can expect this guy to play in few matches as like his captain prithvi. 

Middle Orders

                         Delhi Daredevils middle order was quite a surprise for many bowlers. They have Shreyas Iyer, Rishab Pant, Collin Munro, Naman Ojha and Gurkeerat mann singh. Out of these player only three will play in the XI. Its a combination of young players only Munro is international player.

                    Shreyas Iyer, the man will play at spot no3. He already made debut in team India but not getting enough chances to prove himself because of the presence of senior and worldclass players. Last year also he played for DD but he failed to create a big impact. This year he had a great chance no more reliable players in middle order except this guy. So its his responsible to carry the burden of batting order. Still a lot more to go its the time for him to prove himself as a future of Indian cricket.

         

    

                 Rishab pant, a 20 year old guy created a lot of expectation among Indian selectors that too they are seeing him as a replacement for Dhoni. Is it possible? Can this guy fill the space which can made by dhoni at the time of his retirement???? The answer is " As of Now NO". Eventhough in domestic matches he performed well. Still he didnt provide a single match turning knock or wicket keeping to compare him as next dhoni. Currently he is playing in tri-series against Srilanka and Bangladesh. In first two matches he wasted balls and playing like lack of confidence. He had lot of pressure on him, that only made him not to play his style. But here the ground IPL, rishab should not worry about the pressure around him. He can play calm and free, he should prove himself otherwise lots are waiting to fill that position.

                                       

                   

                 Naman Ojha, almost played nearly 10 IPL seasons, still fighting hard to found a spot in Indian team. He played for India in all 3 formats but not regularly. Basically he is a top order and wicket keeping batsman. Until MSD was there in team India he cant get that place. When coming to top order after viru and gambhir India tried many for opening pair. After lot of failures Rohit and Dhawan occupied openers slot in both T20 and ODI. In tests murali vijay and rahul is there to open with dhawan. So that only he cant able to enter in team. As of now he played for Rajastan royals, Delhi and Sunrisers. In SRH he is the only wicket keeping batsman so his place in playing XI is confirmed in every matches. But this year he has to compete with Rishab Pant. Selectors will prefer pant because he is young but naman he is almost 34 now. If Pant didnt perform well then only he will get chance to play. 

                            

            Colin Munro, the batting hurricane from new zealand, cricket world never forget this guys name that much easily. The kiwi guy having three centuries in international T20s. He is a special product from newzea for playing short format games. Adding Munro in playing XI will make DD middle order very strong. He is a great finisher and he can play as opener too. My guess is lot of possibilites are there. Because Gambhir tried Narine in opening spot and made him as a destructive batsman. Surely he will try munro as opening and made his team batting order very strong.  I would like to call this guy as David Miller of New Zealand.  We can expect lot of fireworks from this guy.

                    Still Gurkeerat Mann Singh is there, but its hard for him to get a chance by overcoming these guys. Anyway the above four guys will play in the middle order position. If they fail also a big all-rounders waiting to finish the game. Both are overseas best players and destructive batsman in T20's. 

Lets see about them in next post... Stay Tuned!!!!!