Delhi ready for underdog’s bite

The one thing that no one needs any convincing about, though, is that on any piece of paper, the Delhi Daredevils start their opening encounter against the Rajasthan Royals as firm favourites.

Last-minute buzz

The Ferozeshah Kotla was a buzz of activity, people buzzing from Point A to Point B, some buzzing back from Point B to Point A, all applying finishing touches to the venue — or battle arena, in this tournament of hyperbole.

The Royals are considered to be one of the weakest teams in the league and they have been further depleted by the absence of some of their key foreign recruits. Graeme Smith and Morne Morkel are completing T20 duties back home, Dimitri Mascarenhas is only available from Game Five, while Pakistan’s Younis Khan and Kamran Akmal are yet to finish their one-day series against Bangladesh.

Under the circumstances, they will only be playing three foreigners (teams can use up to four in a game) — Shane Warne, who retired from all forms of cricket recently; Darren Lehmann, who’s done the same, and Shane Watson, who is trying to find a way back into the Australian one-day side post-injury.

Comparing that to the Delhi line-up seems a bit silly. Gambhir and the fact that he’s figured out the Twenty20 format, Sehwag and the fear he can put into any bowling attack, Tillekaratne Dilshan’s calming influence in the middle, Glenn McGrath’s parsimony — they look in good shape.

Even stevens

But neither Gambhir nor Mohammad Kaif — designated speakers in the absence of captains Sehwag and Warne — thought the shortest format of the game was suited to picking favourites.

“Everything is so fast-paced that there’s no time to make any comebacks. If any team manages to pick up a few early wickets, they automatically become favourites,” Gambhir said time and again (in his defence, he was asked the same question by three different people).

Even Kaif, who will be hoping to play some big knocks to break back into national reckoning, felt it was the format that evened things out to a large extent. “When India went to the T20 world championship under (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni’s captaincy, no one thought they would come back with the trophy. That was a young team, but they managed to pull off some big surprises. We’ll be hoping to do the same.

“Anyway it’s the most consistent team that will come out as champions. It’s not about a couple of games, each team has to play 14 matches,” he said. “We are looking to gather some momentum, and after that, anything is possible.”

Domestic examination

The one thing the two teams have in common is the amount of local talent they’ve packed into their squads. Apart from Sehwag and Gambhir — and the foreigners — the hosts did not go in for any big names from the Indian side, preferring to bank on members of their Ranji Trophy-winning squad.

Rajasthan have only three Indians who have played international cricket — Kaif, Munaf Patel and, if you can count his T20 world championship final cameo, Yusuf Pathan.

With teams having to play a minimum of seven Indians in their XI, this game should provide us with a fair idea of how big the gap between cricket at the domestic level and the biggest stage really is.