Delhi Capitals (DC) did not go all guns blazing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 auction. Mostly, they stayed away from the bidding wars as they had most of their core intact from the previous season. Their most expensive buy of the mini auction turned out to be an uncapped Indian pacer Mukesh Kumar who they roped in for Rs 5.5 crore.
They waited till last to acquire the services of South Africa batter Rilee Rossouw who remained unsold in the initial rounds. Rossouw was picked for Rs 4.6 crore.
They got England wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt for a bargain. No other franchise bid for Salt as he went to Capitals for his base price for Rs 2 crore. Despite having several top-order batters in the squad, Capitals also included Manish Pandey. They also got India's veteran pacer Ishant Sharma for his base price of Rs 50 lakh.
The Rishabh Pant-led Capitals have been underachievers in the IPL, though they started strongly. They also made the playoffs and finished third after topping the table at the end of the group stage in 2012, but finished last in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2018.
After letting go of Shreyas Iyer and making Pant their permanent captain, DC played well in patches and failed to make it into the playoffs. They missed their opener Prithvi Shaw’s services and lost a few games that led to them finishing fifth on the points table, just behind Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) with seven wins from 14 games.
DC are one of the few teams that are yet to lift the IPL trophy. Their best result came in IPL 2020 when they qualified for the final only to lose to Rohit Sharma’s (Mumbai Indians). DC were the most active team before the deadline to submit retentions as they completed a few trades with other franchises.
Players picked in the Auction:
Phil Salt: Rs 2 crores
Ishant Sharma: Rs 50 Lakhs
Mukesh Kumar: Rs 5.5 Crore
Manish Pandey: Rs 2.4 Crore
Rilee Rossouw: Rs 4.6 Crore
Delhi Capitals Captain: Rishabh Pant
Coach: Ricky Ponting
Home ground: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
IPL titles: 0
Delhi Capitals Owner: GMR Group and the JSW Group.
Delhi Capitals (DC) Retained Delhi players
Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Axar Patel, Aman Khan (T), Chetan Sakariya, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kuldeep Yadav, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Prithvi Shaw, Ripal Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Vicky Ostwal, Yash Dhull, Anrich Nortje, David Warner, Lungisani Ngidi, Mitchell Marsh, Mustafizur Rahman, Rovman Powell.
Delhi Capitals (DC) Released Delhi players
Ashwin Hebbar, K.S. Bharat, Mandeep Singh, Tim Seifert
