IPL Mega Auction: Kiran Kumar Gandhi Rates Delhi Capitals' Squad For IPL 2022

Delhi Capitals celebrated yet another successful day at the IPL 2022 Mega Auction as talented India players Mandeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Chetan Sakariya, along with overseas stars Rovman Powell, Lungi Ngidi and Tim Seifert joined the team.

The Delhi-based franchise also acquired the services of exciting domestic talents -- Lalit Yadav, Ripal Patel, Praveen Dubey and India's U-19 World Cup-winning stars Yash Dhull and Vicky Ostwal.

Delhi Capitals began proceedings on Day 2 by acquiring India batter Mandeep Singh for INR 1.10 core and went on to purchase the left-arm duo of Khaleel Ahmed and Chetan Sakariya for Rs 5.25 crore and INR 4.20 crore respectively.

In the second half, the Delhi-based franchise bought the young guns -- Lalit Yadav (INR 65 lakh), Ripal Patel (INR 20 lakh), Yash Dhull (INR 50 lakh), Praveen Dubey (INR 50 lakh) and Vicky Ostwal (INR 20 lakh) along with foreign players such as Rovman Powell (INR 2.80 crore), Lungi Ngidi (INR 50 lakh) and Tim Seifert (INR 50 lakh).

Delhi Capitals chairman and co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi said he is very happy with the make-up of the squad for IPL 2022.

"On a scale of 1-10, I would say 8/9 on how happy I am with the squad we have put together. More or less, it has been a good auction and we are very happy with the team we have put together. The team has done a good job over the last 2 months, meeting on a regular basis and hashing out the difference of views and achieving a good alignment before walking into the auction room.

"That's why you see on the auction table, we don't have a lot of discussions. We are clear which player we want to go over, which player we don't want to go for and to what extent we can go to for a player. There is a lot of clarity among all of us before walking into the auction, both on Day 1 and Day 2."

Having bought a lot of exciting Indian talent, Grandhi said, "It's the Indian Premier League, so we should have as many Indians as possible. We are blessed we have so much talent within India. We have taken a mix of experienced and young players like our U19 captain Yash Dhull.

"We have taken a lot of newcomers so that they can play alongside and learn from experiences and senior players. I am sure they will quickly learn from our coaching staff and experienced players to live up to "heir potential."

Meanwhile, reflecting on the buys, Delhi Capitals' Assistant Coach Pravin Amre said, "We are quite pleased with our buys. We have a good bank of Indian fast bowlers. Our strategy is to back Indian bowlers because with Anrich Nortje in our squad, we can use various other combinations. We will get these options of combinations with a left-arm seamer like Chetan Sakariya and Khaleel Ahmed."

Having acquired the DC Academy prodigy Yash Dhull, Delhi Capitals' Interim CEO Vinod Bisht said, "Yash has been a talent who has been spotted 4-5 years back since he was a small kid. At that time, in the earlier avatar of ours, we always wanted to develop the whole idea of doing grassroots cricket and build stories.

"This is an outcome of that effort of 5-6 years. When a 14-year-old young talent came up to us, and we supported him at that time, and then he goes on to become the captain of India U-19 team, and wins the World Cup, and is back into our fold," he said.

He further added, "This was one talent we could not have allowed to go. The very ethos of saying we develop grassroots talent, we develop talent who can become big and we need to support them in the formative years. That's what exactly we have done. We have done it in the past with Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant, and that is a story we want to continue.

"That is how we build our character brand where we want young talent to come to us and grow with us. We will support them at each and every stage -- school, university and then playing for India."

Delhi Capitals' full squad for the IPL 2022:

Rishabh Pant - INR 16.0 crore
Axar Patel - INR 9.0 crore
Prithvi Shaw - INR 7.50 crore
Anrich Nortje - INR 6.50 crore
David Warner - INR 6.25 crore
Mitchell Marsh - INR 6.50 crore
Shardul Thakur - INR 10.75 crore
Mustafizur Rahman - INR 2.0 crore
Kuldeep Yadav - INR 2.0 crore
Ashwin Hebbar - INR 20 lakh
Sarfaraz Khan - INR 20 lakh
Kamlesh Nagarkoti - INR 1.10 crore
KS Bharat - INR 2.0 crore
Mandeep Singh - INR 1.10 crore
Khaleel Ahmed - INR 5.25 crore
Chetan Sakariya - INR 4.20 crore
Lalit Yadav - INR 65 lakh
Ripal Patel - INR 20 lakh
Yash Dhull - INR 50 lakh
Rovman Powell - INR 2.80 crore
Praveen Dubey - INR 50 lakh
Lungi Ngidi - INR 50 lakh
Tim Seifert - INR 50 lakh
Vicky Ostwal - INR 20 lakh