CHENNAI: Many believe that the way they are playing Delhi Capitals will be one of the first teams to reach the play-offs of the IPL at UAE. After struggling for the last 12 seasons and never once looking a solid candidate to win the IPL, Delhi under Shreyas Iyer's captaincy and Ricky Ponting's guidance looks like it could break the jinx this year.
An ace spinner and one of the key players of Delhi, Ravichandran Ashwin believes that his team has gelled as a unit and attributes his side's success so far in the team tournament to team effort. He is also in praise for his squad's bench strength.
With four wins from five matches, Delhi is currently leading the IPL points table with eight points. "I think we have got a pretty good side and everybody is putting their hands up. Initially, we were a bit rusty getting into the tournament and now we are playing well," said Ashwin.
Ashwin started this season with a bang picking two wickets in an over and later was sidelined due to shoulder injury. Now he is pleased to be back. "For me it's been five games to get my four overs out. It's been a quite interesting year. Came really charged up and got off to a splendid start and then I bowled four overs for the first time on Monday," said Ashwin.
Almost all the players in Delhi are doing a good job in turns which augurs well for the side. They are not dependent just on one or two names to deliver each time. "Everybody is chipping in and I still think there is a lot of room for improvement," insisted the Tamil Nadu player.
Ashwin believes that a solid bench strength, in particular the bowling department, is helping Delhi.
"He (Axar) always goes under the radar. He bowls those good overs and builds up the pressure for someone else to capitalise on the wickets. That's one of the beauty of this particular Delhi Capitals side. When I had shoulder injury, Amit (Mishra) came in and played the role and now when Amit is injured, Axar has come in played the role. So there is enough strength in that bench," explained Ashwin.
"That bench is good enough to be another IPL team, it has that sort of quality. But Amit would be dearly missed in the team," he added.