Let us first talk about the trending fantasy cricket world.
Overview on Fantasy Cricket
In the last three years, fantasy cricket has gained immense popularity. Undoubtedly, cricket is the most popular sport in India. The craze for the sport runs in the veins of every Indian and the excitement that people have before a big tournament kicks off is unparalleled.
Owing to this, fantasy cricket league was declared a game of skills in India. Ever since 2017, there has been an influx in fantasy cricket apps and sites, and some huge successes have been witnessed too.
The sprawling success of these mobile applications has given every user a chance to be a sports owner. While it brings with it a huge amount of excitement and anticipation, the ups and downs on every ball keep thousands of fans engaged. Thus, those play fantasy cricket will understand how challenging it is.
Fantasy cricket is an online game where one can create a virtual team of real cricket players and score points depending on how their chosen players perform in real-time. About 67% of 18 crore cricket fans in India are familiar with the concept of fantasy sports. There are no two thoughts about the fact that the future of fantasy cricket apps in India does look promising.
For those looking to play fantasy cricket and win cash daily, must understand the points system and recent performance of players. This will help them update their selection of the playing XI once the toss is over.
Delhi Capitals: An Inconsistent Team with Blooming Talent
When the BCCI inaugurated the IPL in 2008, Delhi Capitals (formerly known as Delhi Daredevils) was finalised among a list of eight teams that were all set to participate in the tournament. The team was bought by property development company GMR Group for a whopping US$84 million. However, in March 2018, GMR sold a 50% stake in the Delhi Capitals to JSW Sports for US$80 million.
The onset of the IPL (Indian Premier League) created immense excitement amongst cricket fanatics in the country. It shaped the future of Twenty20 cricket in India. With the participation of Bollywood stars and business tycoons, the excitement doubled.
Cricket now had a glamour factor attached to it. Back then, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore were the most popular teams owing to their metro status. And, of course Chennai Super Kings too since it was led by M.S Dhoni.
While every other team in the IPL has witnessed a rollercoaster ride, for long Delhi Capitals came across as an unambitious and inconsistent team. Despite having it all – a powerhouse of talent and great captains, they never managed to create an impact.
In eleven years of the IPL history, the franchise’s mediocrity has been constant. They did make a few flashes in between, however, that too did not bear any fruit.
Many of those who are well-versed with the cricketing world believe that it is their lack of identity that has led to their downfall. For example, despite Royal Challengers Bangalore not winning a title for 11 years, they are backed by one of the most passionate fan-bases in the country. The same applies to Kings XI Punjab too. Though they’ve not really set the IPL on fire, they’re identified by their passionate owner and Bollywood star, Preity Zinta, an occasional good game and their talented captains.
For that matter, Delhi Capitals have hardly been identifiable with their city. They are not even their fan’s favourites. Is it their lack of enthusiasm or a poor social media fan base that has hampered their reputation?
Well, the Delhi Capitals team was a strong side when it was led by Virender Sehwag initially. They even fought their way to IPL semi-finals for two consecutive years before their downfall began. While these two glorious years looked straight out of a fairy-tale, it didn’t last long.
From 2008-2010, everything went their way. The level of competition was impeccable, they were on top of their game, and the passion of their players and fans was something that could be cherished. Only the IPL trophy was missing.
When they won their first game against Rajasthan Royals by 9 wickets, things started to look good for them. Post that, there were several wins and losses. However, they managed to finish forth on the table and entered the playoffs against RR where they lost to the eventual champions.
Ever since then, the Delhi Capitals team has not really had a ‘happy ending’. They’ve been finishing low on the points table, and the team’s performance too has been below par.
Delhi Capitals: Over the Years
Though Delhi Capitals did not manage to bag the trophy in the first season of the IPL, their hopes were still high. Here’s how things started to look for them ever since their debut:
- The team started out on a firm footing when the IPL began. With big names such as Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, they seemed to be one of the most promising teams. Sehwag led the first year well. It was after this that he decided to focus on his batting and hence captaincy was bestowed upon Gambhir.
- Under Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy in 2009, the Delhi Capitals team finished at the top of the table. Much of this credit goes to South African power-hitter, AB de Villiers. He also hit one of the only two centuries in the 2009 IPL. During this time, fans anticipated that they would take the trophy home. Well, destiny had something else in store for them. The team crumbled to Deccan Chargers (now Sunrisers Hyderabad) and did not manage to make it to the final.
- In 2012, a new side of the Delhi Capitals was witnessed after a poor 2011 season where they finished last on the table. They added players such as Mahela Jayawardene, Andre Russell, Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor to their squad. Luck favoured them and they finished third on the table that season.
- Delhi Capitals has also been one of the only teams that have changed their captains the most number of times.
- Did the winning streak continue after that? Sadly no! From IPL seasons 2013-2016, the team was at position 9, 8, 7 and 6 respectively. Things were not looking good for them. Many cricket fans labelled them as the ‘worst team in IPL’. The morale of the players too began to crumble.
- In 2018, Gautam Gambhir returned to captaincy. The team retained power-players including Chris Morris, Shreyas Iyer and Rishab Pant. While the team found pitches that were far from friendly, their home ground too behaved quite differently. Contrary to the previous seasons, they finished last on the table.
- In December 2018, Delhi Daredevils was renamed as Delhi Capitals with the hope to change the fortunes of the franchise after a poor track-record in the last eleven IPL seasons.
- In the 2019 season of IPL, Delhi Capitals broke their playoffs jinx after seven years and even won their first playoff match against SRH. However, they lost their second match against CSK and ended up as second runners up in the playoffs.
Key Players of Delhi Capitals
Delhi Capitals have been underperformers right through the history of the IPL. Though they had a promising start to their journey, they’ve not been able to position themselves as title contenders. However, the Delhi franchise has nurtured good players over the years whose contribution deserves to be recognised.
Here are few players who went on to have stellar cricketing careers after making their DC debut:
- Shikhar Dhawan: Dhawan made his IPL debut with DC and returned to the team after eleven years in 2018. He scored 340 runs in 14 matches for DC in 2008. He aims to use his experience along with the young batting line-up to bring back the lost glory of the franchise.
- Rishab Pant: 2020 will mark Pant’s fifth season with his hometown team ever since he made his debut in 2016. He’s been a great asset to the team. His crucial knock of 21-ball 49 helped Delhi Capitals beat SRH in the eliminator. He is one of the main players who changed the game for the team.
- Shreyas Iyer: Picked by DC in 2015, the skipper has amassed an impressive 439 runs and was also awarded the ‘Emerging Player of the Year’. He smashed a match-winning 93 off 40 deliveries in his first match as skipper against KKR and there’s been no stopping ever since then.
- Prithvi Shaw: Though Shaw may not have played many good knocks last season, he will always be remembered for his brilliant 99 against KKR.
- Amit Mishra: One of the cornerstones of the Delhi Capitals team since four years, Amit Mishra has been retained once again. While he’s been a consistent team player in collecting wickets, he also holds a record of becoming the first player to take three hat-tricks in IPL.
IPL 2020: What is Delhi Capital’s Plan of Action?
In 2019, a change of name injected a new life in the historically bad team – Delhi Capitals. While most fans didn’t expect them to play well again, they came as a surprise package and finished at an impressive third place.
In December 2019, Delhi Capitals also announced that Vijay Dahiya will head the talent scout development wing for their team in IPL 2020. He was the assistant coach for KKR when they won two IPL titles.
Ahead of the 13th edition of the IPL, Delhi Capitals released nine players while retaining a total of fourteen players. Hoping to maintain the consistency like the previous season and finish with their heads high, the franchise retained Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Harshal Patel and Avesh Khan.
They have also added two highly experienced and seasoned performers – R Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane.
During the auction that took place on 19th December in Kolkata, Delhi Capitals had a total purse of INR 27.85 crores available.
While West-Indies batsman, Shimron Hetmyer, was picked up for a whopping 7.5 crore, the other all-rounders and bowlers that will grace the DC team this year will include Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Jason Roy, Chris Woakes, Mohit Sharma and Tushar Deshpande.
The Delhi Capitals team broke their playoffs jinx last year. Will they be able to enter the finals in IPL 2020?
Can the brilliant striker (Rishabh Pant), X-factor (Shikhar Dhawan) and young captain (Shreyas Iyer) write history for a team that have waited twelve years to finish as IPL champions?
