"They have probably assembled the best bowling of this tournament" - Aakash Chopra on Delhi Capitals' strengths heading into IPL 2025
Former player Aakash Chopra has picked the Delhi Capitals' (DC) bowling as their biggest strength heading into IPL 2025. He opined that the franchise has assembled the best death-bowling combination, if not the best attack ahead of the tournament.
DC retained two bowlers — Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav — heading into the recent auction. Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, and Dushmantha Chameera were their prominent bowling acquisitions at the auction.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra,' the former India opener chose the Delhi Capitals' death bowling as one of their biggest strengths.
"They have probably assembled the best bowling of this tournament. You will find Gujarat's bowling very good. If you leave aside one spinner, Mumbai has one of the best bowling attacks. So let's settle on the fact that they (DC) have the best death-bowling attack," he said (2:30).
Chopra pointed out that Natarajan and Mukesh have impressive numbers at the death.
"No one has better bowlers for overs 15 to 20. If you check T Natarajan's numbers and compare them with all other Indian players, you will find that he is very, very good, and the last year was also good. Mukesh Kumar's stature has grown a lot. He has done death bowling for this franchise and done very well," he elaborated.
The former Kolkata Knight Riders player added that the Delhi-based franchise got Starc relatively cheaply, with Mohit being another death-bowling option.
"They have bought Mitchell Starc, and that turns out to be a steal. He has taken a 50 percent pay cut. He had to come into the big auction this time. As soon as you come in the big auction, your price is halved. So he had to take a pay cut but they got Mitchell Starc. They also have Mohit Sharma," Chopra observed.
Starc (₹11.75 crore) was the Delhi Capitals' most expensive bowling pick at the auction. While they spent ₹10.75 crore for Natarajan, they bought Mukesh and Mohit for ₹8 crore and ₹2.20 crore, respectively.
"No team has 8 overs of this kind of spin" - Aakash Chopra on Delhi Capitals' duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav
![Axar Patel (₹16.50 crore) was the Delhi Capitals' most expensive retention ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. [P/C: iplt20.com]](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2024/11/625ea-17328545611548-1920.jpg?w=500)
In the same video, Aakash Chopra opined that the Delhi Capitals' have the best spin-bowling attack heading into IPL 2025.
"Delhi have the best spin bowling of this tournament, and interestingly enough, they didn't need the auction for that because they have Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. No team has eight overs of this kind of spin, and that is why both of them were retained," he said.
He termed the duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav 'absolute gold dust.'
"They were given a lot of money and asked to stay. On the small ground and flat pitch in Delhi, Arun Jaitley Stadium, a lot of sixes are hit. You get exposed if you don't have quality there. Quality is the only thing that separates you from the others, and the two spinners here are of absolute gold-dust quality," Chopra explained.
Chopra concluded by noting that the Delhi Capitals have an extremely varied bowling attack. He claimed that no franchise is better than them at the death and in the spin-bowling department.