Delhi Capitals

[Bevab]

I kind of liked the very first jerseys that the erstwhile Daredevils had. Over a period of time they moved to predominantly blue. Still feel that the IPL need to mandate home/away jerseys,like they do in FIFA and nowadays in the ICC events as well.

I’d like them to start banning every side that opts to include any shade of blue in their jersey henceforth.

 

[icyman]

Could just be the way forth. I dont see the BCCI stopping at 10 franchisees just yet. Expect them to make this into a greater gala with 14-16 over a period of time. Obviously don't wanna see 12 teams sporting blue jerseys.

 

[Neptune]

Alright the batch of '25 is out and I definitely feel less pessimistic about our chances than I have in a while. I'll give my thoughts on our squad this season.

1. Jake Fraser McGurk
2. KL Rahul
3. Harry Brook
4. Tristan Stubbs
5. Abhishek Porel
6. Ashutosh Sharma
7. Axar Patel
8. Mitchell Starc
9. Kuldeep Yadav
10. Mukesh Kumar
11. T Natarajan
12. Sameer Rizvi / Darshan Nalkande / Mohit Sharma

Good
There's just so much batting firepower in there; Harry Brook and Tristan Stubbs have taken their T20 game to another level lately and if all goes well we have an incredible core there for an entire cycle.
There's no shortage of strike bowlers : with the sub rule its almost impossible to just restrict the batsmen since everyone is more willing to slog. Taking wickets is key and we have options from overs 1-20 for it.
I love the fact that we did not end up spending 20+ cr for a "Marquee" player even if it happened inadvertently; they are just not worth it and our squad is better for it.
Almost everyone in the starting 11 select themselves; there's no spots that look destined to be a merry go round of mediocre players getting their chance like has been the case for the last few years

Unsure / Reserving Judgement
Completely biased here but it is my review I guess : there's a lot of players that I personally dont rate anymore. Examples : Jake Fraser McGurk, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera and Mohit Sharma
I'm not sure we have an obvious captain; Axar Patel will probably get it due to being the top retention but it just doesnt instill too much confidence
There's a lot of one season wonders and we've gone largely off last season form. Could end up being genius or blow up in our face spectacularly

Bad
The bench looks incredibly underwhelming: amongst the uncapped Indians there's no stand out player that's set the domestic scene alight and even the overseas players bar Faf are just not IPL quality
The balance is just horrible yet again; being this light on both batting and bowling depth despite the sub rule is a sin. There's no obvious allrounders on the bench that fix this problem either
It's not hard to see how the bowling could be a problem if the Dehli wicket is just as high scoring as last season. There's almost no one in this lineup that's good in slowing the run flow on a road; it was a problem last season and will remain one this season.
We've done a poor job of getting some experienced rotation options; there were so many unsold players that could have helped us and the young players just dont seem ready to be thrown in the deep end.

Overall : I would rate our auction 7.5 and squad a 6.5; our retentions were underwhelming compared to other teams and there seems to be a decent core forming. Our lack of allrounders is very striking but we have enough match winners to win games here and there. My prediction is that we finish around 6th or 7th this season

 

[Till Valhalla]

Alright the batch of '25 is out and I definitely feel less pessimistic about our chances than I have in a while. I'll give my thoughts on our squad this season.

1. Jake Fraser McGurk
2. KL Rahul
3. Harry Brook
4. Tristan Stubbs
5. Abhishek Porel
6. Ashutosh Sharma
7. Axar Patel
8. Mitchell Starc
9. Kuldeep Yadav
10. Mukesh Kumar
11. T Natarajan
12. Sameer Rizvi / Darshan Nalkande / Mohit Sharma

Good
There's just so much batting firepower in there; Harry Brook and Tristan Stubbs have taken their T20 game to another level lately and if all goes well we have an incredible core there for an entire cycle.
There's no shortage of strike bowlers : with the sub rule its almost impossible to just restrict the batsmen since everyone is more willing to slog. Taking wickets is key and we have options from overs 1-20 for it.
I love the fact that we did not end up spending 20+ cr for a "Marquee" player even if it happened inadvertently; they are just not worth it and our squad is better for it.
Almost everyone in the starting 11 select themselves; there's no spots that look destined to be a merry go round of mediocre players getting their chance like has been the case for the last few years

Unsure / Reserving Judgement
Completely biased here but it is my review I guess : there's a lot of players that I personally dont rate anymore. Examples : Jake Fraser McGurk, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera and Mohit Sharma
I'm not sure we have an obvious captain; Axar Patel will probably get it due to being the top retention but it just doesnt instill too much confidence
There's a lot of one season wonders and we've gone largely off last season form. Could end up being genius or blow up in our face spectacularly

Bad
The bench looks incredibly underwhelming: amongst the uncapped Indians there's no stand out player that's set the domestic scene alight and even the overseas players bar Faf are just not IPL quality
The balance is just horrible yet again; being this light on both batting and bowling depth despite the sub rule is a sin. There's no obvious allrounders on the bench that fix this problem either
It's not hard to see how the bowling could be a problem if the Dehli wicket is just as high scoring as last season. There's almost no one in this lineup that's good in slowing the run flow on a road; it was a problem last season and will remain one this season.
We've done a poor job of getting some experienced rotation options; there were so many unsold players that could have helped us and the young players just dont seem ready to be thrown in the deep end.

Overall : I would rate our auction 7.5 and squad a 6.5; our retentions were underwhelming compared to other teams and there seems to be a decent core forming. Our lack of allrounders is very striking but we have enough match winners to win games here and there. My prediction is that we finish around 6th or 7th this season

I finally know your team

 

[icyman]

Overall : I would rate our auction 7.5 and squad a 6.5; our retentions were underwhelming compared to other teams and there seems to be a decent core forming. Our lack of allrounders is very striking but we have enough match winners to win games here and there. My prediction is that we finish around 6th or 7th this season

I'd rate them higher-say 8. They got a couple of really good deals. Starc and KLR were 'cheap' buys in the context of the auction. While the firepower is definitely there, the lack of well-known Indian batsmen/bench(as you've mentioned) could haunt them. If JFM and Brook fail, the batting is likely to go into a shell with KLR calling the shots. Among the unsold, they could have gone for Sarfaraz / Shardul.

Captain- I believe Axar is a front runner. Alternatively, they could also look at Faf, incase they want a foreign captain.

 

[Neptune]

So a 6.5 was about accurate I think. We fell off so badly at the end, here's my thoughts.

There are some non negotiables if you want to win a T20 league. Your openers have to be amongst the best batsmen in the tournament; and neither Abhishek Porel nor JFM were even close. You simply do not win the IPL if your openers make 360 runs combined in a season

There's a fundamental lack of runs and wickets in this team. We have 0 good powerplay wicket takers apart from Starc, and if Kuldeep doesn't bail us out we look clueless with the ball throughout.

Here's what I would do for next season :

Keep

Abhishek Porel
Karun Nair
KL Rahul
Sameer Rizvi
Sediqullah Atal
Tristan Stubbs
Axar Patel
Ashutosh Sharma
Vipraj Nigam
Manvanth Kumar
Kuldeep Yadav
Mukesh Kumar
Darshan Nalkande
Mitchell Starc

Release
Faf du Plessis
Harry Brook
Jake Fraser-McGurk
Ajay Mandal
Madhav Tiwari
Donovan Ferreira
Dushmantha Chameera
Mohit Sharma
T Natarajan
Tripurana Vijay

Need a complete overhaul of our overseas slots, as was visible even before this season. Gives us around 33cr to work with, not bad as long as we spend it well

 

[icyman]

I'd still take my chances with JFM and Brook. What really went wrong for the Capitals was the break towards the end- the uncertainty coupled with the availability of some stocks hampered their progression.

I am also surprised that @Neptune wants to release Natarajan. If moulded well, he can be a good weapon alongside Starc.

 

[Neptune]

I'd still take my chances with JFM and Brook. What really went wrong for the Capitals was the break towards the end- the uncertainty coupled with the availability of some stocks hampered their progression.

I am also surprised that @Neptune want to release Natarajan. If moulded well, he can be a good weapon alongside Starc.

Fact is Natarajan costs excees of 10cr, has a bad injury record, is 34 and doesn't play any other notable cricket. It is time to move on, the gamble did not pay off

Same for JFM. Costs too much to not be playing for Australia or well in any professional cricket. Harry Brook is banned for one season so there goes that

 

[icyman]

Fair enough point on Natarajan. He has fallen out of favour with the Indian management too! Natarajan being released for an upcoming fast bowler might make sense, seeing as they will be relying heavily on Starc and Mukesh. Starc- as we know, might not trun up next year-has a track record of doing so in the IPL.