Sharjah: The return of senior batsman Shreyas Iyer has allowed Delhi Capitals to field an ideal bowling line-up and reap its benefits since IPL's resumption, bowling coach James Hopes said on Monday.
With Iyer being sidelined due to a shoulder injury in the first half of IPL, Delhi went for the specialist overseas batter in Steve Smith, leaving out pacer Anrich Nortje, who was also down with COVID-19 in the initial part of the tournament.
Iyer's presence means Nortje has reunited with South Africa teammate Kagiso Rabada to form one of the most potent attacks in the IPL. The other pacer is Avesh Khan, with the two spinners being Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin.
"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."
Delhi are set to make the play-offs but Hopes said they are not thinking of resting their key bowlers just yet.
Iyer has returned to the side but the team has decided to stick with Rishabh Pant as skipper for the rest of the season. Hopes said very little separates their captaincy style.
