Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Tom Curran: Check Delhi Capitals’ full squad for IPL 2021

Looking to build
on their first-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) final appearance under young
captain Shreyas Iyer last year, the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Thursday spent Rs 2.2 crore on Australian batting stalwart Steve Smith as their headline signing of the mini-auction held in Chennai.

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The
Capitals had a turbulent 2020 season, starting off as the most consistent and well-rounded
sides as Shikhar Dhawan firing on all guns at the top of the order and South
African pace duo Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje leading the wicket-taking
charts.

But they
fell apart in the second half of the round-robin stage but recovered just in time
to make the playoffs, where they beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad in between two
losses to eventual champions Mumbai Indians.

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Having retained
most of their core squad, DC released six players ahead of the auction and had
a purse of Rs 13.4 crores to spend on eight slots, including three overseas
slots. Among the released players were Alex Carey, Keemo Paul, Tushar Deshpande,
Sandeep Lamichhane, Mohit Sharma and Jason Roy.

This will be Smith’s sixth IPL franchise, after having played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Kochi Tuskers, Pune Warriors India, Rajasthan Royals and the Rising Pune Supergiants. 

He had an underwhelming season for the Rajasthan Royals in 2020, when the side finished bottom of the table, scoring 331 runs in 14 matches, including three fifties. 

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The Shreyas Iyer-led side have also bought Indian express pacer Umesh Yadav for his base price of Rs 1 crore. It will be interesting to see how Yadav features in the squad, with Delhi already having the prolific pace duo of Rabada and Nortje, who took a combined 52 wickets between them last season.  

The Capitals’ most expensive buy of the auction, however, was English all-rounder Tom Curran, whose services they secured for Rs 5.25 crore. They also roped in Curran’s fellow Englishman, wicketkeeper-batsman Sam Billings for Rs 2 crore, who will be expected to provide cover for Rishabh Pant. 

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DC also bought uncapped players Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Hussain Meriwala and M Siddharth for Rs 20 lakh each.

Delhi Capitals full squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Kagiso Rabada,
Marcus Stoinis, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Chris Woakes, Ravichandran
Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Shimron Hetmeyer, Pravin Dubey, Prithvi Shaw, Lalith
Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant, Amit Mishra, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Tom Curran, Sam Billings, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Hussain Meriwala, M Siddharth.