Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer on Monday (5 October) said it is “saddening” that DC will be without their experienced spinner Amit Mishra in the ongoing IPL 2020, but insisted the franchise has enough capable replacements to make up for the senior’s absence in the tournament.
Mishra has been ruled out of the remainder of ongoing IPL 2020 due to a finger injury that he picked up during DC's fixture against KKR on October 3.
The 37-year-old spinner, who played three games and picked up three wickets in the IPL 13, sustained a flexor tendon injury to the ring finger while trying to take a return catch of Nitish Rana and left inured himself.
Mishra, a vital cog in DC's bowling unit, is one of the most successful bowlers in the IPL, as well as, is the second-highest wicket taker of all time in the history of the T20 league after Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga (170) with 160 wickets from 150 matches in the tournament.
However, the Delhi-based franchise already has the number of leg-spinning options at its ranks, likes of Sandeep Lamichhane, S Midhun, Praveen Dubey, Shubham Singh and Ankit Soni, but Mishra’s exit would be sorely missed by the Capitals in the ongoing IPL 2020.
Following the veteran spinner’s ouster, Akshar Patel played as the second spinner alongside Ravichandran Ashwin during DC’s last victorious IPL 2020 fixture against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Iyer said at the post-match presentation: “It is saddening when a senior player (Mishra) who was doing amazingly well gets injured but we have got good replacements as well. Chopping and changing spoils the atmosphere in the team so we're trying to keep it really simple.”
The DC have won 5 of their 5 matches in the ongoing IPL 13 so far and Iyer is delighted with his young team's impressive show by saying, “getting 4 out of 5, I will take that any day. Kudos to the boys and the temperament shown in pressure situations. Our strategy was to be fearless and play with full freedom.”
He signed off by saying, “We have got good youngsters in our side, so we just need to go out and execute our talent and skills. I am very happy with the way things are going so far, and we need to keep up the momentum. When we come on to the ground we talk about comprehensive victories.”
(With ANI Inputs)
