Kochi, Dec 24 (IANS): Delhi Capitals are happy to have bolstered their squad with the experienced Ishant Sharma and Manish Pandey besides other immensely talented players at the IPL Mini-Auction.
In the auction on Friday, the JSW-GMR co-owned Delhi franchise bagged England's Phil Salt (INR 2 crore) and South Africa's Rilee Rossouw (INR 4.6 crore) along with Indian players Ishant Sharma (INR 50 lakh), Mukesh Kumar (INR 5.5 crore) and Manish Pandey (INR 2.4 crore).
Speaking about the exciting additions to the squad, Delhi Capitals Chairman & Co-Owner Parth Jindal said, "We've been able to improve our squad from last season by adding experienced players such as Ishant Sharma and Manish Pandey. And with the exciting additions of Rilee Rossouw, Phil Salt, and Mukesh Kumar, we have a very well-balanced squad. I think we have the team to go a couple of steps further than where we finished last season."
Jindal added that he was particularly thrilled for uncapped player Mukesh Kumar.
"From being a net bowler for us to getting an India A call-up, Mukesh has come a long way. Our coaching staff had told me that he was consistently troubling all our top-order batters in the nets last season. He will provide unbelievable support to Khaleel Ahmed, Chetan Sakariya and Kamlesh Nagarkoti," Jindal as quoted as saying in a release on Saturday.
Meanwhile, DC Chairman & Co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi said, "We were looking for back-ups for the players we already had in our squad going into the Mini-Auction. I am quite happy with how the evening went for us and I think we have a good side. Hopefully, we can perform much better than last season."
Grandhi added that the players were picked according to the IPL moving back to the original home and away format in the 2023 season,
"A lot of planning goes into where the IPL is organized. We'll go back to the original format of home and away in the next season so we picked players according to where we will be playing," he said.