IPL 2019: Best Delhi Daredevils XI from the retained Players
Delhi Daredevils are one of the three teams in the IPL who are yet to win their maiden title. The team from the capital city finished at the bottom of the point table, their fourth time, but this time they did not go down without fighting. A little bit of luck and they could easily have been in top 4. Unlike 2011, 2013 and 2014 seasons, the 2018 season their points reached double figures, and for the first time in the IPL, a team with double digits finished at the bottom.
The 2018 season saw DD bring back local boy Gautam Gambhir and hand over the captaincy to him. Expectations were high for the southpaw to deliver the way he did for Kolkata Knight Riders. But things did not pan out as expected and Gambhir opted out of captaincy midway, and the management decided to hand over the captaincy to Shreyas Iyer and Gambhir was subsequently dropped from the side.
Iyer then flourished with the bat along with Rishabh Pant but DD still failed to win games, though they were competent enough. There were many close games which could have gone either way but DD were at the receiving end more often than not.
After a disappointing season, going into the auction for the next season, the management decided to release as many as 10 players, including big names such as Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammad Shami. Here we look at the best possible playing XI among the retained players:
Openers - Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw
The biggest trade happened between DD and SRH as the former got their hands on Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan in place of Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar and Abhishek Sharma. Though all three of them were immensely talented, Daredevils finally got their hands on a reliable opener as the southpaw returns home team for the first time since 2010.
Prithvi Shaw who impressed one and all in his debut season and also scored a century in his debut test inning is going to open with Dhawan. The right-left combination will work well for the franchise giving them an explosive yet stable opening combination.
With Munro already there as a backup opener, it is highly unlikely that they would look for openers in the auction.