IPL 2018: Junior Dala to replace Chris Morris in Delhi Daredevils squad

Junior Dala of South Africa has replaced Chris Morris in Delhi Daredevils squad

Bengaluru, April 27: South African pacer Junior Dala will replace his compatriot Chris Morris in the Delhi Daredevils squad for the rest of the IPL season.

Morris will miss the season after being diagnosed with a back injury and he had missed Daredevils' last match against the Kings XI Punjab.

Junior Dala made his T20I debut for South Africa earlier this year against India and has so far played three matches. However, Dala was unsold in the IPL auction held in Bengaluru in January at a base price of Rs 20 lakh.

The right-arm fast bowler Dala has been a consistent performer in South African domestic cricket for the Titans. From 52 T20 matches, he has picked up 49 wickets with an average of 25.34 and at an economy rate of 8.24.

Junior Dala will be joining the #DDSquad as a replacement for the injured Chris Morris.

Ab Dala bhi dhadkega! 😄#DilDilli #Dhadkega pic.twitter.com/gP80cA52uh
— Delhi Daredevils (@DelhiDaredevils) April 27, 2018

According to some reports, Rajasthan Royals had also shown interest in signing Dala to replace injured Sri Lankan Dushmanta Chameera.

The arrival of Dala is a good addition for Delhi Daredevils as they were woefully short of firepower in bowling, particularly in the death overs. Dala is known in South African circuit as someone who can cope with the pressures of bowling in the end overs of a T20 match.

In the T20I series against India, Dala had emerged the joint highest wicket-taker and had dismissed India skipper Virat Kohli with a lovely delivery.

"The one thing I did say to myself was, 'when I bowl to Virat, just play the batsman and not the man - Virat'.

"Fortunately, I had a lot of practice bowling to AB de Villiers in our domestic T20 so I always figured that if I could bowl to AB, I could bowl to anyone in the world. I just tried to bowl my best delivery to Virat," Dala had said in interview to Firstpost a few weeks back.

Now, Dala will have the opportunity to bowl at Kohli and De Villiers again in the IPL. Not only the Royal Challengers Bangalore duo, Dala will also come up against some power-hitters in world cricket in the IPL and the experience he had against AB and Kohli should stand him in stead.