5 players Delhi Daredevils (DD) would want to retain for IPL 2018
Delhi Daredevils have been the perennial under-achievers in the IPL since the start of the first season as they have failed to reach the finals of the tournament even once. In the 2017 edition, they had a good chance of turning their fortunes around as their squad looked good enough to make it to the finals. However, with the absence of JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock, the Daredevils missed two of their batting mainstays and were forced to constantly field an inexperienced batting line-up.
They managed to win a few matches and finished sixth with six wins. However, once again, they tinkered too much with their team combinations and didn’t make the best use of their players throughout the tournament and that proved to be costly for the Zaheer Khan-led side.
With a fresh auction set to take place in 2018, all the players will be going back into the auction pool. The IPL governing council is yet to confirm anything about player retention. When a fresh auction was conducted in 2014, each franchise was given a maximum of five retentions (including the Right to Match card).
Let us take a look at five players Delhi will look to retain for the 2018 IPL assuming that the IPL GC decides to allow five retentions per team.
Extra cover: 5 players who the Royal Challengers Bangalore would like to retain for IPL 2018
#1 Shahbaz Nadeem
When Sunrisers Hyderabad acquired the services of Jharkhand's slow left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in the 2014 IPL auction, Delhi Daredevils used the Right to Match option to buy back the spinner, who was a part of their franchise in the previous season. Nadeem has been very handy for the Daredevils since his IPL debut in 2011 as the spinner has made sure that he has kept the opposition batsmen at bay during the field restriction overs.
Realising his importance, the franchise used one of their five RTMs on him and they won’t hesitate to do so ahead of the 2018 auction as well. Nadeem has been in sensational form in the Indian domestic circuit and became the first bowler to pick up at least 50 wickets in two consecutive Ranji Trophy seasons.
He has been on the national team selectors’ radar for a while and it won’t be a surprise if he gets a call-up to the Indian team in the near future.
In the 2017 IPL, he was not utilised properly as he played only seven matches and picked up six wickets in 18 overs at an economy of just over six. The Delhi team management should look to retain the slow left-armer ahead of the next season, like they did four seasons ago.