Team Profile, Delhi Capitals: New-Look Delhi Franchise Keen To End Title Drought
Delhi Capitals, appearing in their new image, will be seeking to ditch the 'underachievers' tag.
Highlights
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Delhi Capitals were earlier known as Delhi Daredevils
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They are the only team to never have played an IPL final
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Delhi Capitals play Mumbai Indians in their first match on March 24
The Delhi Capitals franchise owners evidently think that a change of profile would also change their luck in the Indian Premier League (IPL). From Delhi Daredevils, the owners decided to rename their team's name to Delhi Capitals ahead of the 12th edition of IPL. They still are the only team to never have played a final. Last season, the team management decided to bring in a new face to lead the side and they got the service of local veteran Gautam Gambhir who wished to win an IPL title for the franchise that represents his home state. However, Gambhir decided to give up on his captaincy midway owing to poor form with the bat. Shreyas Iyer was then named Delhi Daredevils' captain for the remainder of the tournament.
DD was the most inconsistent team in the history of IPL. With six wins and six losses they finished fifth in the inaugural edition of the IPL. The following year was DD's best performance ever as they finished on top of the points table with 10 wins from 14 matches. Virender Sehwag was the captain of that side.
However, their dream run came to an end when they lost to eventual champions Deccan Chargers by six wickets in the semi-final.
In the 2010 edition, Delhi finished fifth on the points table where they won seven and lost seven matches. However, in the 2011 season they finished last in the points table with just four wins.
Again, in 2012 their inconsistent performance continued as they topped the points table with 11 wins and 5 losses from 16 matches. But again they failed to progress further as they lost by a heavy margin to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Qualifier-2. MS Dhoni's side defeated Virender Sehwag's DD by 86 runs.
The Delhi Daredevils went through the worst phase in 2013 and 2014 seasons when they finished last on the points table. They merely won five matches in that period. In the 2015 season, with only five wins they finished seventh. Likewise, in 2016 and 2017 they finished sixth in the points table with seven and six wins respectively. Last year again they finished last on the table when they managed just five wins.
The modified Delhi Capitals squad will once again look to start from scratch. It possesses some big names in Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Colin Munro, Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris to name a few.
Squad: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Colin Munro, Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris, Bandaru Ayyappa, Sandeep Lamichhane, Ishant Sharma, Colin Ingram, Trent Boult, Manjot Kalra, Nathu Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Rahul Tewatia, Ankush Bains, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Amit Mishra, Hanuma Vihari, Keemo Paul, Jalaj Saxena.
Delhi Capitals
Shikhar Dhawan