Delhi Capitals will be most wary of the scheduled South Africa home series against Pakistan. Their bowling unit revolves around two South African quicks who were an integral part of their run to the final last year. For if they miss a significant portion of the start of the IPL (in keeping with quarantine guidelines), their plans are likely to be hit badly.

DC seamers, despite picking 72 wickets last season, took just 13 in the PowerPlay. In Ishant’s absence, the back-up seamer (Sams, Tushar Deshpande, Harshal Patel) struggled for Delhi, conceding at 10.53.

• Released:

They also need a back-up Indian wicket-keeper. They had to change their team balance when Pant was injured last season. Alex Carey has been released.

Despite their strong core of Indian top-order batsmen, DC struggled with their opening combinations with Shaw and Rahane unable to find their mojo. That meant Marcus Stoinis moved up the order. If Stoinis remains as opener, Delhi will need a back-up finisher given their very modest death-overs scoring rate of 9.53 – second-lowest after SRH.

Delhi Capitals

Purse: INR 13.40 cr || Slots left: 8 || Overseas slots left: 3

Existing squad breakdown:

Top-order batsmen: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c)

Finishers: Rishabh Pant (wk), Shimron Hetmyer

All-rounders: Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes

Spinners: R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey

Fast bowlers: Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan

• Possible Targets

Umesh Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Lukman Meriwala, Chetan Sakariya, Mohit Sharma, Daniel Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Morris, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Avi Barot, Sheldon Jackson