Delhi Darevils fans blame the absence of long serving skipper for poor performance

The Delhi Daredevils suffered a humiliating loss at the hands of the Royal Challengers Bangalore at Bengaluru on Saturday. Although Delhi managed to restrict the Royal Challengers to a low enough total, they faltered badly in chasing the same down. They required 19 of the last over when Shane Watson handed the ball to Pawan Negi who had not bowled a single over in the match until that stage.

Rishabh Pant who was batting at 57 looked set at the crease but got dismissed off the first ball of the final over ending all hopes of the Delhi franchise. They could manage only 3 runs in the final over which saw them end up on the losing side.

Delhi are one of the three teams who has played the tournament from the first edition but is yet to win the Indian Premier League trophy. They had made it to the semi-finals in the first two seasons and topped the table in the year 2012. But since then they have found it difficult to get along well and have put up disastrous performances in the league. They have also lost the highest number of matches in the Indian Premier League (74), much to the disappointment of the fans.

Before the start of the 2017 season Hindustan Times went around Delhi to find out what the fans think about their franchise. And the most important factor which has been highlighted was the inability to hold on to a single leader.

Jaideep Singh, a chartered accountant quoted “There has been Gautam Gambhir for KKR and MS Dhoni for CSK, but DD hasn’t been able to produce a leader of such quality”

There has been 10 captains over the past nine years for Delhi and the departure of Virender Sehwag was a big disappointment for the fans.

“There is no Sehwag anymore in the squad. He used to have a positive influence on the game every time he played for DD” said Subhash, a college student.

Delhi’s batting has been a big area of concern as they have struggled to score big in the IPL. The loss of Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Shikhar Dhawan proved costly for the side.

Mukesh, another college student quoted “Their batting is a weak link. They should try to incorporate experienced batsmen rather than depend entirely on youngsters.”

In the absence of high profile South African duo JP Duminy and Quinton De Kock Delhi this year, DD would look up to skipper Zaheer Khan and mentor Rahul Dravid for a turnaround in their fortunes.