Shreyas Iyer's return has helped DC field ideal bowling line-up: James Hopes

Delhi Capitals (DC) bowling coach has said that the return of Shreyas Iyer has helped the side field an ideal bowling line-up since the resumption of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.  Iyer was sidelined for the first half of the tournament due to a shoulder injury and has found his feet since his return. In the first phase, DC had to field Steven Smith in the XI, which would mean Anrich Nortje would be benched. 

However, with Iyer returning, Nortje has been reunited with his fellow South African pacer Kagiso Rabada, allowing the Indian batsman to play in place of Smith in the middle-order. "To be honest the two of them bowl 150 kmph an hour so I'd be disappointed if they weren't attacking and aggressive," Hopes said ahead of the KKR game referring to Rabada and Nortje.

"But having both those guys on the park has really enabled us to do that in the power play. At the start of the tournament, with Shreyas being out we decided to play Steve and I think all along our ideal line-up had Nortje and Rabada in it, but we just couldn't afford to do that at the start of tournament.

DC are sure to make the playoffs but they are not thinking of resting their key bowlers just yet. DC had announced ahead of the second phase that Rishabh Pant would continue as DC skipper for the rest of the tournament, despite Iyer's return. Hopes says that there is not much of a difference between their captaincy styles.

"Not much has changed to be honest like it's just, it's like all systems go, like, a few years ago when we made the move to Shreyas (as captain), it was a long-term plan to get this team into into this position and just because Shreyas is not captain at the moment it doesn't mean that he is not a very senior player in this team.

"Rishabh has captained the team beautifully and we expect him to continue to do so"

Delhi remain the team to beat but Hopes thinks they have not hit peak yet.

"We are getting there but, to be honest, we were still a little bit sloppy in the field, but we give them a little bit of pass on that like it's 42 degrees or whatever it is and it's not, not that easy to run around for an hour and a half. 

"We've still got four pool games to go and, and we've got the finals after that, hopefully. So, yet we're getting there but we haven't peaked just yet, but we're starting to show signs that we're on the right track, definitely," he added.

DC, who have 16 points from 10 matches, take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) next in Sharjah on Tuesday (September 28).

(With inputs from PTI)