What is required in order to qualify for the playoffs in IPL? A team needs to win 8 out of 14 matches. It does not sound that tough from the outset. But for Delhi Daredevils (DD), it seems impossible to reach that figure every season. Having finished at 9th, 8th and 7th respectively in past 3 seasons, Delhi Daredevils made a string of changes, shifting emphasis on youngsters and bringing in the ‘Wall’, Rahul Dravid as a mentor. The first half of IPL 2016 went smoothly, with 5 wins from 7 games. It seemed finally Delhi Daredevils (DD) will break their hoodoo and punch above their weight to compete for their maiden IPL title. But then, it remains outside their reach, and with 5 defeats in last 7 games, Delhi Daredevils (DD) fizzled out and ended the tournament at the 6th position in the IPL 2016 Points Table. The obvious question lies on where did it all go
Delhi Daredevils (DD) began IPL 9 playing Quinton de Kock and Shreyas Iyer at the top. While de Kock proved his quality over the course of the tournament by scoring 445 runs in 13 games, his partner had an atrocious time in the middle, to say the least. Iyer, who had dazzled in IPL and in the Indian domestic tournaments in the recent past, had a nightmarish IPL 2016 scoring 30 in 6 innings. Since then, Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant were used at the top. The lack of a formidable opening pair was among the key reasons behind the side’s batting failures. Every winning team is built around the opening pair, but for DD, they had no answer to it.
Even in the middle order, they have made far too many changes. For any team, the key positions are No. 3 and No. 4. But for Delhi Daredevils (DD), they struggled to find a designated player for these two positions. The likes of Samson, Karun Nair, Sam Billings, JP Duminy were all here and there, but to very little success. Even decisions like promoting Pawan Negi over hitters Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Morris, impacted heavily in last night’s defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). These moves have been tough to understand.
