The Indian Premier League’s newest season is around the corner and they are all set to host the 15^th season of the festival league. The new season will be witnessing a lot of twists, turns, tension, and suspense while also featuring two more franchises i.e. Ahmedabad and Lucknow. If you are new to IPL or an enthusiast who wants to delve into the details about the franchises, you have slid into the right place. Here we will be discussing the IPL veterans, the Delhi Capitals. You can get an overview of the team, records, players, retentions, etc.

Delhi Capitals – An Overview

Introduction

Delhi Capitals, formerly known as Delhi Daredevils are an IPL franchise. JSW group as well as the GMR group owns the franchise. They play their home matches at Arun Jaitely Stadium, located in New Delhi. They played their first IPL final in 2020.

GMR group bought the franchise for 84 million dollars during the team auction in Mumbai. Later sold a 50% stake in the Delhi Daredevils to JSW for Rs 550 crore. The team changed its name from the Delhi Daredevils to Delhi Capitals. The new name symbolizes the state’s identity as Delhi is the capital of the country.

Seasons review

2008

Delhi Daredevils (Delhi Capitals) won the initial matches of the inaugural season of the IPL against Rajasthan Royals and the Deccan Chargers. They lost a match against Kings XI Punjab. Delhi then bounced back with a twin win against Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Chennai Super Kings.

However, Delhi later faced loss in four straight matches, breaking the streak with a win against the Deccan Chargers. They finished fourth in the tournament, by winning 3 matches back-to-back.

2009

The Daredevils dominated most of the 2^nd season of IPL. The former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir led the team to finish at the top of the table. There was a flourishing partnership between the former Indian openers, Gambhir and Sehwag.

Despite finishing at the top of the table during the regular season, Delhi disintegrated in the semi-final. Deccan Chargers’ hard hitter Adam Gilchrist pulled off the fastest 50 in the IPL history. Delhi eventually lost the semi-final and did not participate in the final despite having the best records in the league stages. However, they managed to qualify for the Champions League T20 as a result of their performance on the group stage.

2012

Two years before 2012 weren’t the years for Delhi Daredevils (Delhi Capitals). They finished 5th in 2010 and last in 2011. Each team played two different legs after disbanding Kochi Tuskers Kerala. There were 16 matches played since then.

A new side of Delhi Daredevils (Delhi Capitals) could be visible this season compared to the poor season they had in 2011. They purchased the English legendary batsman Kevin Pietersen, Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene, and New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor.

Glenn McGrath, the Australian spearhead expressed his disappointment after not finding a place in the squad for any matches. He eventually stopped playing for Delhi.

Former skipper Virender Sehwag returned his position to the team and Mahela Jayawardene became the new captain.

2013

Daredevils had lost their 6 initial matches and won the 7^th against the Mumbai Indians. Jayawardene and Sehwag’s partnership led the team to a win against Mumbai where they totaled 161 runs.

They played their final match in the season against Pune Warriors India, they managed to win it and secured 8^th position in the table.

2014

Ahead of the Indian Premier League auction, in January 2014, Daredevils announced that there will be no retention of any existing players.

With no players retained, Daredevils (Delhi Capitals) experienced another poor season in 2014. They lost the opening match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, yet, they tasted their first win against Kolkata Knight Riders. The tournament got shifted to UAE later and Delhi Daredevils (Delhi Capitals) lost their nine matches there. Delhi finished last in this season as well by losing 12 of 14 matches which took place in UAE.

2015

The Delhi Capitals received huge criticism from their fans as they had finished seventh in the 2015 edition of the IPL. This was consecutively the 3^rd time that they performed poorly.

2016

Delhi Daredevils released most of their players including Yuvraj Singh, their most expensive player of the previous year for 16 crores. New additions included Pawan Negi, Sanju Samson, and Karun Nair. Delhi won five of their first 7 matches, however, lost their second match against newcomers, the Gujarat Lions by just one run. They had qualified for the playoffs but finished sixth with fourteen points in fourteen matches.

2017

South Africans de Kock and Duminy got released before the tournament. Delhi Daredevils completely depended on a young batting line-up and a bowling line-up led by Zaheer Khan. They ended up in the sixth position with six wins and eight losses for the season.

2018

Going into the big auctions, each franchise could retain up to three players. They could also use Right to match cards to get two players back during the auctions. Coach Rahul Dravid left the position as a coach of the franchise to protect his position as coach of India A and India U-19. Ricky Ponting became the new coach of the Delhi Daredevils.

2019

The Delhi Capitals retained 14 players and purchased Shikhar Dhawan back from Sunrisers Hyderabad. They also purchased Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly as their official advisor. The campaign began with a 37 runs victory over Mumbai Indians. The Capitals got into the playoffs after seven years and won the playoffs against the Sunrisers Hyderabad by two wickets. They lost their second match against Chennai Super Kings by six wickets ending up as second runners-up in the playoffs.

2020

Capitals started well in the tournament by winning 7 out of their 9 initial matches. They went on to defeat the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last match to qualify for the playoffs and finished as the second-ranked team in the league stage. They won qualifier 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad which helped them reach the finals for the first time in the history of the IPL. Mumbai Indians defeated Delhi Capitals in the finals making it the most successful season of the capitals in the IPL history.

2021

IPL 2021 season took place in India. No teams played at their home ground. Delhi Capitals promoted Rishabh Pant as their captain as Shreyas Iyer got ruled out due to an injury. They won 6 out 8 games they played securing the top position of the points table. The season got suspended for an uncertain period due to the breach of the pandemic.

Notable Players of Delhi Capitals

Former Indian opener, Virender Sehwag was the Icon Player of the Delhi Daredevils team. He later resigned and passed on the captaincy to Gautam Gambhir during the 2010 season. The team held many cricket legends such as Glenn McGrath, Ab de Villiers, Tilakaratne Dilshan, David Warner, Daniel Vettori, Farveez Maharoof, and Aaron Finch.

Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Malik left the team in 2009 due to the ban on Pakistani players. They bought Mahela Jayawardene, Andre Russell, Morne Morkel, and Kevin Pietersen in 2012.

Delhi Capitals  –IPL 2022  Retained Players

As the IPL 2022 season is around the corner, Delhi Capitals did not release some of their key players. Rishabh Pant is one of them. Skipper Rishabh Pant is an integral part of their batting system and they spent Rs 16 crores on retaining him. Like Rishabh Pant, young opener Prithvi Shaw, all-rounder Axar Patel, and Anrich Nortje were retained in the team.

Delhi Capitals – IPL 2022 Squad

Delhi Capitals – Season Standings

Delhi Capitals – Result summary against opposition