"What will they get Manish Pandey to do?" - Aakash Chopra on the Delhi Capitals' IPL 2023 auction

Aakash Chopra has questioned the Delhi Capitals (DC) for acquiring Manish Pandey at the IPL 2023 auction as he believes the franchise does not have a place for him in the batting order.

The Capitals bought the Karnataka middle-order batter for ₹2.4 crore at the mini-auction in Kochi on Friday, December 23. The franchise also acquired Phil Salt, Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Rilee Rossouw to assemble a full-strength 25-member squad.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra was perplexed by the Delhi Capitals' acquisition of Pandey, saying:

"They have picked Manish Pandey. It's a big question - what will they get Manish Pandey to do? I have zero idea because there is no place for him there. They have kept Rilee Rossouw also. They probably thought that they can play one of Rossouw and Rovman Powell."

The former Indian opener feels that both Pandey and Rilee Rossouw are unlikely to get their preferred batting positions, explaining:

"You might say that there is place for Manish Pandey and Rilee Rossouw but it will not be there. When Prithvi opens alongside Warner, Mitchell Marsh plays at No. 3 and Rishabh Pant at No. 4, neither Manish Pandey nor Rilee Rossouw should play at No. 5."

Chopra was also not too pleased with the Delhi Capitals for buying another opener in Phil Salt, reasoning:

"They bought Phil Salt, he is an opener. I have got really no idea why they bought an opener. Maybe because they let Tim Seifert and KS Bharat go. Openers - David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull and Phil Salt. That is why I was saying that there will be no place for Phil Salt, he won't get a chance to play."

The Delhi Capitals management mentioned at the auction that they are looking at Pandey as a backup for any of their first-choice batters. Rishabh Pant's side have probably acquired Salt and Rossouw as backups for David Warner and Mitchell Marsh, with the former also capable of donning the wicketkeeping gloves.

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On the flip side, Chopra was delighted with the Delhi Capitals' acquisition of Mukesh Kumar, elaborating:

"They bought Ishant Sharma, he has played for Delhi earlier and has come back to Delhi. Mukesh Kumar - very good acquisition. If we see Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman - you need fast bowlers on the pitch they play, so they have kept an entire quota of fast bowlers."

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Chopra added that the Capitals have decent spin-bowling options in the form of Kuldeep Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Axar Patel, Vicky Ostwal and Lalit Yadav. He concluded by acknowledging that the team is looking good despite not making any significant progress at the auction.