Team Profile:

Delhi Daredevils, owned by GMR constructions, has a number of genuine match winners. Their motto is “Dare to Succeed”, but the team has not yet dared to reach the finals of the tournament. Their logo is a fiery ball and as it suggests they were on fire for the past two seasons. With star Indian players and reliable foreigners the team looks unstoppable. The Daredevils are now being led by Gambhir, after Sehwag’s decision to step down. Their top order was one of the best as Indian star openers Sehwag and Gambhir starts the innings followed by Dilshan, AB de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik. Their bowling attack looks strong with the South African bowler Wayne Parnell joins Ashish Nehra in their attack. Delhi is one of the few teams which is banking heavily on home-grown talent.

Performance in IPL 2009:

The Daredevils had an outstanding season of 2009 IPL, finishing at the top of the table after the league stages. But as all IPL teams Daredevils also got problems as their captain Virendar Sehwag was injured in the mid-tournament and vice-captain Gambhir in a relatively poor form. A.B. de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan both had improved a lot since last season as they set up many large totals for the Daredevils, with de Villiers hitting one of only two centuries in the 2009 IPL.

The bowling was bolstered by the addition of Ashish Nehra and Dirik Nannes. Pradeep Sangwan and Amit Mishra also improved their game since last season. In fact, the Daredevils left Vettori, Collingwood and McGrath on the bench for most of the tournament, preferring to go with the overseas combination of Nannes, de Villers, Dilshan and David Warner.

They met Deccan chargers in the finals in a match in which they made a convincing score of 153 for 8 from 0 for 2. But this effort was in vain as Gilchrist’s innings of 85 from 35 balls stopped them from going to the final.

New Players to the team:

Wayne Parnell: This young South African bowler was bought by the team management in IPL auction 2010 to strengthen their bowling attack.

Pros of the team:

• The strong top order is one of the best in the IPL.
• Addition of Wayne Parnell increases the strength of their bowling attack.

Cons of the team:

• Lack of a good hitter in the slog overs is a problem for the team.

Squad for IPL 2010:

• AB de Villiers
• Pradeep Sangwan
• Umesh Yadav
• Amit Mishra
• Kedar Jadhav
• Moises Henriques
• Wayne Parnell
• Sarandeep Singh
• Shashi Ranjan
• Sarabjeet Ladda
• Ashish Nehra
• Aavishkar Salvi
• Mithun Manhas
• David Warner
• Andrew McDonald
• Dirk Nannes
• Farveez Maharoof
• Tillakaratne Dilshan
• Virender Sehwag
• Gautam Gambhir
• Dinesh Karthik
• Rajat Bhatia
• Joginder Singh