As per reports, Delhi Capitals have retained Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw and Anrich Nortje before IPL 2022 mega auction. Since the last mega auction in 2018, Delhi Capitals have been one of the better teams in the competition. While they finished as the runner-up in IPL 2020, the team reached the playoffs in 2021. A few players performed consistently for the team, and they can rue themselves unlucky for not getting retained by the franchise. In this article, we take a look at three players unlucky not to be retained by Delhi Capitals before IPL 2022 Mega Auctions.
1) Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan is one of the players unlucky not to be retained by Delhi Capitals before IPL 2022 Mega Auctions. Amidst much fanfare, Dhawan returned to his home franchise from Sunrisers Hyderabad. Since then, he has been the best batsman for the team. While he scored 521 runs in 2019, he did even better in the recent campaigns, scoring 618 runs in 2020 and 587 runs in 2021.
An experienced candidate, Dhawan still has a few years left in him at the top level. However, despite doing well, he has not been retained. Hence, he can consider himself unlucky.
2) Kagiso Rabada
Kagiso Rabada collected 25 wickets in 2020 and bettered his record by picking 30 scalps in 2021. Yet, he has been released by the franchise. While his form is one reason, the emergence of Anrich Nortje is the main factor behind Rabada being released.
Nortje has been extremely impactful in the last two seasons and is the bowler in form. Hence, Delhi Capitals have gone ahead with the Anrich ahead of Kagiso.
3) Avesh Khan
It is clear that Delhi Capitals have taken the approach of building their team for the long term. Yet, Avesh Khan, who is one of the best young players in the team, did not get retained. He is also yet to make his debut, and Delhi could have retained the speedster at a lesser price. It seems that Delhi was not fully convinced about Avesh, who picked 24 wickets in IPL 2021.
The Madhya Pradesh pacer is someone who bowls well both at the death and in the powerplay. He has got multiple variations and is seen as a bowler for India for the long term. DC might as well try to buy him back at the auctions.
