Delhi Capitals opener Shikhar Dhawan bats in the nets during a practice session. - Delhi Capitals Twitter
Dubai - The team had lost all three matches, including the qualifier to Chennai Super Kings, last season
Published: Thu 24 Sep 2020, 2:03 PM
Last updated: Thu 24 Sep 2020, 4:12 PM
The Delhi Capitals may have failed to beat the Chennai Super Kings last season but assistant coach Mohammad Kaif believes that what happened in the past, is the past and said that this is a different team and a different tournament.
The Delhi Capitals, who pulled off a Super Over victory over Kings XI Punjab in their opening IPL game in Dubai, go up against the three-time champions Chennai Super Kings at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Delhi lost both their matches against CSK in the league stage as well as the Qualifier 2, last year.
But Kaif said that this is a different team as compared to last year as they bought some new players in the auction last December.
"It is going to be a different ball game altogether," Kaif said during a virtual press conference on Thursday.
"Statistics might not give a proper picture in this IPL. That happened a year and a half ago, that means 16 months ago, when we played against CSK. This is a different tournament, players haven't played much, some might come in form much earlier, some might take a bit longer compared to others. That's going to be the case in this tournament. And we have a very different squad also. We bought some new players in the auction. So, compared to last year, we are a different Delhi Capitals team this year. How we played last year against CSK, nothing to do in this IPL, I guess. And having played the first game, we had a chance to look at the conditions and we are going to be playing even better than how we played in the first game," he added.
Delhi and Chennai have played 21 matches with the latter winning 15 and the former six.
Kaif also felt that the Delhi Capitals may have a bit of an advantage as they will be playing their second game after a four-day break, while for Chennai, it will be their third game in six days.
"All teams in the tournament are equal, all are strong teams and it is still the early phase of the tournament. But this break for us probably was a good thing because we had a chance to go to the nets and talk to the boys and plan for the next games. Seeing the conditions in Dubai, having played one match against (Kings XI) Punjab, I feel this break has given us a slight advantage," felt Kaif.
Kaif said that they will stick to their openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan despite them failing to fire in the first game.
"(Prithvi) Shaw and Shikhar (Dhawan) played well last year for us, and gave us very good starts in the powerplay. Very exciting player Prithvi Shaw and we all know what Shikhar Dhawan can do in the IPL. And having played the first game, even though we didn't play our best in the first game, I can see a big improvement from here on. We had a couple of days off, we could plan things, we spoke to the boys how they felt about the first game. (Ajinkya) Rahane is a fantastic player but we want to pick the best team and we would like to stick with that for a couple of matches and see how it goes from there," said the 39-year-old.
Kaif also hinted that Marcus Stoinis, who had a great game against Kings XI Punjab, could be promoted up the order. The Australian coshed 53 from 21 balls with seven boundaries and three sixes batting and No.6 and then went on to snap up 2 for 29.
"That might happen too," Kaif said on pushing Stoinis up the order.
"Marcus (Stoinis) has been playing for his country for a long time now. He's very experienced and we need someone like him, if situations demand, he might go up in the order and of course, bat No.6, so we have that option. He can float and do the job for the team," he said.
james@khaleejtimes.com
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