After a successful first few years of the Indian Premier League during which they made it to the playoffs a couple of times, Delhi’s form kind of fizzled off in the years that followed. However, they turned their fortunes around last season once again as they made it to the playoffs after a long wait. A lot of players impressed during their successful stint in 2019 and hence, we take a look at three of those players who could be expected to perform well in the 2020 edition of the tournament as well.
Rishabh Pant: He has been under pressure at the international stage due to his inconsistent performances in recent times but Pant is a different beast in the Indian Premier League. He was the highest run-getter for Delhi, and also the second highest run-getter overall, during the 2018 edition of the tournament. Pant amassed 684 runs during that edition at an average of 52.61 and followed that up with a total of 488 runs in 2019 at 37.53. His strike-rates of 173.60 and 162.66 during both of these seasons respectively were fabulous as well. Hence, he would be eager to repeat his heroics in this season as well.
Shimron Hetmyer: He was one of the big-budget buys for Bangalore during the auctions of the last season. Although he had horrendous outings for the franchise in his first four outings, Hetmyer bowed out on a high with a knock of 75. He will be featuring for Delhi this season and will be hoping to have a far better season than his last outing. The 23-year-old will most probably slot into their middle-order and his role would be to accelerate the scoring in the middle-overs of their innings.
Kagiso Rabada: He could have won the Purple Cap last season but an injury towards the business end of the tournament saw Imran Tahir edging Rabada out by just a solitary wicket. Rabada finished the season as the second highest wicket-taker with 25 scalps to his name at an excellent average and strike-rate of 14.72 and 11.28 respectively. He bowled a lot of crucial spells for them and even won them a match single-handedly in the Super-Over. Rabada is an invaluable bowling asset to Delhi and thus his form would be crucial to their success in the forthcoming edition of the tournament.
Written by : Prasenjit Dey
