Delhi Capitals (DC) with four quick uncapped signings in the accelerated round wrapped up what was an interesting two-day auction for them in Jeddah. The Capitals alongside four other teams went into the auction looking for a captain and there are suggestions that Aar Patel is one of the frontrunners but the 2020 finalists haven't harmed their prospects one bit by landing a couple of potential options in form of KL Rahul and Faf du Plessis, the former RCB skipper.
Rahul was among the big three Indian potential captaincy options alongside Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer. However, with Iyer and Pant raking in moolah in the first marquee set and Rahul coming after them and the fact that his performance and strike rate in the last few seasons affecting his prospects combined for him to earn a sizeable paycheque of INR 14 crore, a slight cut from his previous price tag. However, if Rahul is freed up from captaincy and is given the role clarity, who knows the Rahul of 2018 might just show up at the batting paradise in Delhi.
Apart from Rahul, the Capitals got back Jake Fraser-McGurk and Mukesh Kumar through RTM while going the distance to acquire star pacer Mitchell Starc, the hero of wins in the first qualifier and the final for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Du Plessis, who is as fit as ever, might be used as a backup opener unless he is in captaincy consideration, which looks difficult given Stubbs, Harry Brook, Starc will be the three overseas options.
Apart from the high-profile names, Delhi were able to get the uncapped finisher Ashutosh Sharma, the UP League sensation Sameer Rizvi and Karnataka youngster Manvanth Kumar as they built up a squad of 23 players. Delhi will be glad that they were able to get some marquee names without overpaying for any of them and still form a quality squad. How the team goes under the new management would be interesting to see. But after the four great retentions, Delhi will be happy with their work in the last two days.
Delhi Capitals Squad
Retained: Axar Patel (INR 16.5 crore), Kuldeep Yadav (INR 13.25 crore), Tristan Stubbs (INR 10 crore), Abishek Porel (INR 4 crore)
Bought in Auction: KL Rahul (INR 14 crore), Faf du Plessis (INR 2 crore), Jake Fraser-McGurk (INR 9 crore - RTM), Mitchell Starc (INR 11.75 crore), Harry Brook (INR 6.25 crore), T Natarajan (INR 10.75 crore), Mukesh Kumar (INR 8 crore - RTM), Mohit Sharma (INR 2.2 crore), Sameer Rizvi (INR 95 Lakh) and Ashutosh Sharma (INR 3.8 crore), Karun Nair (INR 50 Lakh), Darshan Nalkande (INR 30 Lakh), Vipraj Nigam (INR 50 Lakh), Dushmantha Chameera (INR 75 Lakh), Donovan Ferreira (INR 75 Lakh), Ajay Mondal (INR 30 Lakh), Manvanth Kumar (INR 30 Lakh), Tripurana Vijay (INR 30 Lakh), Madhav Tiwari (INR 40 Lakh)
