The JSW and GMR co-owned franchise Delhi Capitals retained its core squad in January 2021, while releasing as many as six players for the upcoming season.

Going into the auction, with a total of eight vacancies, including three overseas slots, assistant coaches Pravin Amre and Mohammad Kaif opined that Delhi Capitals will look to bid for the possible back-ups for their retained core unit.

"The Delhi Capitals team management has a well-defined plan heading into the IPL Auction 2021," said Amre. "We are in a clear frame of mind about what we are going to do on the auction table. We are not desperate to go behind only one player, who can come and fit in the playing XI, that's not the case for us. The IPL is a tough tournament, anything can happen with key players, like injury or other reasons, so that's why we should have that back-up for each and every one. So, that's the area we are looking to target going into the auction."

Commenting on the current squad, Pravin Amre said, "This team actually played great cricket last year, and everyone, not only management, but they won the hearts of DC fans also. I think that's the reason why they deserve to be here as a unit."

To be honest, if we are asked to play tomorrow also, we have a playing XI ready with us, so I think that's the successful planning, and that's what we learned from other teams also, who back their core for a long time.

"I must say the owners and the Head Coach have done a great job by retaining the core unit of this team who played the final in 2020."

Airing his views, Kaif said "We already have our main core unit who played in the last season. We have released a few players, so we will be looking to fill those gaps. I think flexibility is the key in the auction.

"One can have all the plans for the auction, but things can change on the auction table. We have to take spontaneous decisions. Our main players have been playing continuously and there are no fitness issues as well. So, we'll be looking to acquire some back-up players in tomorrow's auction," he said.

Delhi Capitals retained players: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Avesh Khan, Praveen Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes.