Delhi’s 4 Indians and 3 Foreigners to be retained for 2011.

Now it’s becoming increasingly likely that the older teams ( including our beloved Daredevils) will be allowed to retain 4 Indian and 3 foreign players for the 2011 season . This also means that some of the arguments and selections made in one of our previous posts now become irrelevant. Never mind. We will re-plan for 2011 based on the new set of circumstances.

First a disclaimer. We are going to make our picks based on the performance of the players in the IPL, with larger weights assigned to the performances in India. After all future editions are also going to be played on the Indian wickets.  We are not going to be buoyed by the performance of any player in the other formats of the game. This has to be done objectively. We need to do a lot better in 2011.

First the 4 Indian players.

Virender Sehwag is an absolute certainty. The other can’t miss is Amit Mishra. The two have been our best batsman and best bowler over the last two editions respectively. That leaves two spots.

The team has three international players – Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Ashish Nehra and picking two of them seems to be the obvious choice. But at the same time, the precocious talent of Umesh Yadav cannot be ignored.

In terms of past performance alone, Nehra and Karthik should be retained but we will also have to consider the foreign players that will be retained and how easily replaceable a player is ( meaning are there enough similar players available).

By that argument, retaining Karthik becomes a necessity. It will be most difficult to find a good wicket keeper batsman. Almost all the good ones are already taken. The dearth is evident from the fact that Mumbai haven’t been able to find a good glove man. The availability of the Australians, Tim Paine and Brad Haddin is also a  big question mark.

Quality Indian pacers are also a rare breed. There is absolutely no one to step into Nehra’s shoes. Losing Nehra will break the formidable opening pair of Nehra and Nannes. This pair has been one of the biggest pluses for Delhi in the last two editions.

That will mean that we will lose Gambhir and Umesh Yadav, unless we can successfully bid for them.  Replacing them will be relatively easier than replacing Nehra and Karthik. Steady batsmen and medium pacers are a fairly abundant species. Moreover, Gambhir is on an expensive contract and excluding him will free up a large amount of cap space as well. This should be sufficient to get a top batsman.

Now for the 3 foreign players

Dirk Nannes has to be retained. Period. Will not even bother arguing his case.

That means at this stage we have one batsman, one wicket-keeper batsman and three bowlers.  So, we will try filling up the remaining two slots with batmen or all-rounders. The options, though are fairly limited.   Based on past performance, the choice is between Paul Collingwood, David Warner, Daniel Vettori and Farvez Maharoof. Others like AB de Villiers, Tillekratne Dilshan and Andrew McDonald have simply been too disappointing.

Daniel Vettori should get the nod; quite simply because he is the best T-20 spinner in the world.  Delhi should also be looking for a new captain (after the disappointing leadership of Gautam Gambhir) and Vettori is well suited for the job.

The final slot is a throw-up between Collingwood and Warner. There is little to choose between the two. Collingwood can fill  the crucial number six  position, whereas Warner has the makings of  a T-20 legend. And both won games for the Daredevils with the bat.

I will finally go with Warner. The prospect of Sehwag and Warner opening together is too tantalizing to pass.

So our final list is

Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, David Warner, Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes.

Hopefully, they will form the core of a great Daredevils team in IPL 2011.