Described by many as the worst team on paper, Delhi Daredevils seems to have an advantage over Rajasthan Royals with a great fielding side and more pinchhitters.

Delhi Daredevils

The Delhi Daredevils is a mixed bag team of youth and experience. They have the flashy Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who were bagged for $833,750 and $725,000, respectively. Both are good Twenty20 players.

The Delhi Daredevils can also boast of South African AB De Villiers who is in great nick right now, New Zealand Captain Daniel Vettori, and Sri Lankan Tilakratne Dilshan. Daniel Vettori seems to be having a great time in the warm climes of Delhi, considering the toungue in cheek ad spots he has been figuring in on TV in Delhi.

The Delhi team also has youngsters like Rajat Bhatia, Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas and Mayank Tehlan, Pradeep Sangwan, and Yo Mahesh. All have done exceptionally well in the domestic season recently.

The batting line-up looks well balanced with hitters like Virender Sehwag (Twenty 20 strike rate of 133.6), Gautam Gambhir (Twenty20 strike rate of 129.71), and Del Villiers (Twenty20 strike rate: 103.7), and consistent players like Shoaib Malik Twenty 20 strike rate of 123.01), and Dilshan (Twenty 20 strike rate of 102.94). The line-up is backed up by Dinesh Kartik, Rajat Bhatia, Manhas and Tehlan.

Batsman Rajat Bhatia was instrumental in securing Delhi’s Ranji Trophy win after 16 years.

The bowling line-up looks good with Glen McGrath, Australian ex-strike bowler, who was man-of-the-series in the last World Cup, spinner Daniel Vettori, Mohammad Asif, and Maharoof. Left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan was the star of the Under-19 World Cup that India won.

Best Feature: The Daredevils have a superb fielding outfit, with brilliant fielders like Villiers and Dilshan, supported by six very athletic youngsters.

Key Players: Virender Sehwag, Glenn McGrath, and AB De Villiers

Disadvantage: A shaky bowling attack with Asif and Maharoof battling with injuries while Vettori is off to join the New Zeland team’s tour to England.

Rajasthan Royals

The Rajasthan Royals biggest ace-in-the-pack is captain-coach Shane Warne. Considered the finest leg-spinner in the world, Warne is the only non-Indian captain in the DLF IPL tournament. The other big draw is Shane Warne’s archrival Graeme Smith, captain of the South Africa team.

Graeme Smith has a fantastic record with the bat. He has played 115 ODIs and has a strike rate of 82.62. In International Twenty20s, Smith has played 10 matches and has a strike rate of 132.71.

The Rajasthan Royals also have pinchhitter Dmitri Mascarenhas, who has an ODI  strike rate of 116.67 and an International Twenty20 strike rate of 105.41. He is famous for hitting five consecutive sixes off the final five balls of an innings against India in 2007. Mascarenhas is pretty much the Rajasthan Royals trump card.

The Rajasthan Royals also have Mohammad Kaif, Kamran Akmal (Twenty 20 strike rate of 116.92), Sohail Tanvir and Younus Khan (Twenty 20 strike rate of 118.92).

The other players in the squad are Yusuf Pathan, Niraj Patel, Siddharth Trivedi, Ravindra Jadeja, Swapnil Asnodkar, Taruwar Kohli, Jaydev Shah, Sumeet Khatri, Parag More, Mahesh Rawat, Pankaj Singh and Dinesh Salunkhe.

Key Player: Dmitri Mascarenhas

Disadvantage : Graeme Smith will miss the first two matches in the IPL tournament and will be replaced by former Australian batsman Darren Lehman. Smith will be back on April 24, 2008.

The Indian film fraternity is being actively woed by the franchises as the Indian Premier League (IPL) dates approach. The latest to join the crowd is Akshay Kumar, who has just been appointed brand ambassador for Delhi Daredevils captained by Virender Sehwag.

In a bid to give new vigour for the parting teams, the owners of IPL franchises have already appointed high- paid film stars to endorse their brands. The owner of the Chennai Super Kings, India Cements started the trend by roping in south Indian matinee idols Vijay and the sexy Nayanthara as their brand ambassadors. These stars are now in the frame to popularise the Indian one day team captain Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings. The stars were heavily paid by the India Cements for endorsing the team.

The other IPL teams are also thinking about roping in big personal brands in film field to popularise the game and promote themselves. There is news that actors Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone might endorse the Bangalore IPL team, Royal Challengers.  Rahul Dravid, former Indian captain, is the captain of Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The Delhi Daredevils team is owned by infrastructure developer GMR Group. Akshay Kumar belongs to Delhi and has big star value in the Hindi heart land. The Virender Sehwag-led Delhi team will now get a new face to promote their brand in the coming Twenty20 matches. Gautum Gambhir, Mohammed Asif and Shoaib Malik are also members of the Delhi IPL team.

Shah Rukh Khan’s ownership of Kolkata Knight Riders automatically lends it publicity. Preity Zinta on the other hand has given a new face to her Mohali IPL team by appointing Daler Mehndi, and music duo Sajid-Wajid to endorse the team. They will come out with a new album promoting the Mohali team. SRK’s Kolkata Knight Riders has signed up Vishal-Shekar and dance master Ganesh Hegde for its promotional activities.

It is expected that IPL will become a big business and additional revenue source for film stars as the cricket war enters the next phase. Different companies and individuals owning IPL franchises are ready to spend as much as money possible to popularise the IPL tournament and reap the financial rewards.

“I belong to Delhi and this my team. I always like cricket and I am a firm believer in sportsman spirit,” said Akhsay Kumar. The Bollywood action and comic hero has been having an excellent run at the box office recently.

At the event announcing Akshay Kumar as the Daredevils’ brand ambassador, Virender Sehwag (who just broke the record for the fastest ever triple century in test cricket) captain and icon player, Gautam Gambhir, Pak players Shoaib malik and Mohamed Asif were present.

Bollywood stars Preity Zinta and Shah Rukh Khan are promoters of Mohali and Kolkata IPL teams.
Tamil actor Vijay and actress Nayantara have been roped in as ambassadors of Chennai IPL team, while

Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif is associated with the IPL Bangalore team’s theme song.

Shah Rukh Khan has contracted Rani Mukherji and Bipasha Basu for his Kolkata Knight Riders’ theme song. Juhi Chawla is also the promoter of Kolkata Knight Riders. Virender Sehwag is the Delhi IPL team captain.

Virender Sehwag (Captain)
Daniel Vettori
Mohammad Asif
Shoaib Malik
Dinesh Karthik
AB de Villiers
Farveez Maharoof
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Gautam Gambhir
Manoj Tiwary
Glenn McGrath
Rajat Bhatia
Shikhar Dhawan
Mithun Manhas
Mayank Tehlan
Pradeep Sangwan
Brett Geeves

GMR Sports, owner of the Delhi Daredevils team has announced the sponsors for its IPL team. Hero Honda will be the main sponsor for the upcoming Twenty:20 tournament, while Adidas has signed up as the team’s Official Kit Supplier. Vijay Mallya’s has a pie in the Delhi Daredevils team too – Kingfisher is the associate sponsor for the Delhi IPL team. Greg Shipperd, coach of Victoria state in Australia will be the coach, and his assistant David Sacker is the assistant-cum-trainer of the Delhi Daredevils.

Virender Sehwag, captain and icon player of the Delhi Daredevils is confident that he has a match-winning team on his hands.

The Delhi daredevils faced some disappointments too. Ashish Nehra, whom the team wanted, was taken by Mumbai Indians – Sehwag said that he was too expensive for Delhi Daredevils. Ishant Sharma, bowling hero of India’s CB Series tour down under, was snatched up by Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knightriders. Not a major setback, feels Virender Sehwag.

This is what Sehwag told the media while introducing the Delhi daredevils lineup: “Our team combination is good, it is a balanced side. We have very good batsmen, brilliant bowlers and excellent all-rounders.” Sehwag added that the Daredevils are a young side, and therefore he thinks that they are the best fielding side in the IPL tournament.

The daredevils team has eight international players — Glenn McGrath, Daniel Vettori, Farvez Maharoof, Tillekaratne Dilshan and Brett Geeves, Shoaib Malik, AB de Villiers, Mohammad Asif.

Eight international players, yes. But remember that only 4 international players will be allowed to play in a match. The team practise sessions however would be interesting with a bunch of local lads and myriad accents and an Australian coach. That goes for most of the IPL teams, I guess!

Delhi Daredevils will play their first IPL match against Rajasthan Royals at the Ferozeshah Kotla on April 19, 2008.

Our original daredevils post