5 Players you didn’t know played for Delhi Capitals
Delhi Capitals, previously known as the Delhi Daredevils is the only side which hasn’t played in the IPL finals. They had a star-studded line-up with great international players like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB ve Villiers, Daniel Vettori, Glenn McGrath but they failed to clear the semi-final hurdle in the first two seasons.
They lost by a big margin to Rajasthan Royals in the semi-finals of the first edition of IPL. Deccan Chargers skipper Adam Gilchrist smashed Delhi bowlers all around the ground to chase down an easy target in the semi-finals of the second season. Delhi failed to qualify for the knockout stage for the next 2 seasons.
After reshuffling majority of the squad, Delhi came back strongly to qualify for the knockout phase in IPL 2012. But they lost to champions Kolkata Knight Riders and runner-up Chennai Super Kings in both the qualifiers they played. Sadly on the negative side, Delhi has lost all the matches they have played in the knockout phase of IPL.
Delhi’s team management have changed their squad regularly and never had a settled team core since the third edition of IPL. This resulted in the team’s poor performance in the past few years and they failed to qualify for the playoffs since 2012.
Some well-known players like Andre Russell, Aaron Finch, David Warner, Umesh Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, Kevin Pietersen, Morne Morkel, Ross Taylor, JP Duminy have played for Delhi in the past.
Here we look at five players whom you didn’t know played for the Delhi Capitals
5. Shoaib Malik (2008)
After the horror show in World Cup 2007, Shoaib Malik led Pakistan side to the finals of the inaugural T20 World Cup where they lost to arch-rivals India. Malik is one of eleven Pakistani players who has played in the IPL. Malik was bought by Delhi for an amount of half a million USD.
Malik made his much awaited IPL debut against the Deccan Chargers. But, he struggled to make an impact for Delhi and was dropped from the Playing XI. His last outing for Delhi came against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Delhi had bad days when Malik played in the eleven as they lost five of the seven matches he played in. He scored 52 runs and picked up two wickets in seven matches. Due to political reasons, Pakistan cricketers were banned from playing in IPL, so Malik’s IPL career was brought to a premature end.