Delhi Daredevils had a terrible season in IPL. (Source: BCCI)
Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar on Saturday blamed the poor selection of starting eleven as the reason behind the failure of Delhi Daredevils in this season of Indian Premier League. The side which was earlier captained by Gautam Gambhir, who was replaced by Shreyas Iyer in the middle of the season, is guaranteed to finish at the last position and is the only team to have been eliminated so far.
In a column for Times of India, the former batsman said that DD once again failed to pick the right combinations of players. “Delhi, of course, are out of it once again mainly due to poor selection of the playing eleven,” Gavaskar wrote. He further went on to add that a team with a foreign coach (Ricky Ponting for DD) often fails to use the full potential of the domestic talent at disposal.
“The problem of having a coach who hasn’t seen the domestic players was evident when young Abhishek Sharma was picked to play after the team was out of the running for the play-offs,” he said.
He further added that Abhishek Sharma would have been a better selection than the foreign players used by DD who failed to shine. The young man showed how he would have fitted right in and though one performance does not mean much, it’s just the attitude and approach that was so refreshing to see and which Delhi could have done with especially when some of their fancied overseas players have been more of a no-show than the big show that they were expected to be,” he said.
Delhi Daredevils are currently in the final position with 8 points in 13 games and will play against Mumbai Indians on Sunday.