Rahul Dravid believes that Mumbai Indians (MI) are the favourities to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 title, but they will face tough opposition from the other three teams -- Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).“Mumbai finished top of the table and are looking quite strong. But, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rising Pune Supergiant are all good sides and we can expect quite a few exciting matches in the play-off stage,” said Dravid after Delhi Daredevils’ 10-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their final match of the season on Sunday (May 14).
Delhi Daredevils who finished 6th in thep points table, suffered a huge blow even before the start of the season when Quinton De Kock and JP Duminy both opted out of the tournament. It left a huge hole in the DD batting line up and Rahul Dravid believes that they were never really able to recover from those losses.
“We lost De Kock and JP before the tournament and as a result, our batting line-up was quite inexperienced when compared to other teams. They are really good players of this format and it was too late for us to find good replacements for them.”
Delhi Daredevils finished the season at sixth with 12 points from 14 matches. It was a disappointing run for DD, but Dravid believes that the team can take quite a lot of positives from this season.
“The youngsters played brilliantly for us and I believe that they have the potential to become huge stars. Players like Rishabh and Sanju have really proved their mettle against good bowling line-ups and if they are consistent, the future looks extremely bright for them,” concluded Rahul Dravid.
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