lying at the bottom of the IPl table, Delhi Daredevils have a herculean task at their hands to reach the play-offs. They have to win their remaining six matches in a bid to secure a top-4 spot.
Their first test is against an inconsistent Rajasthan Royals at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium here on Wednesday.
With just four points from eight matches, Delhi have to somehow conjure their strengths, and have to perform in unison to put forth a winning streak. Ideally, 16 points should be enough to secure the top-4 spot and rarely 14 might do the trick.
Either way, Delhi have to play out of their skin under their new skipper Shreyas Iyer to reach the promise land.
Following Gautam Gambhir's resignation as their skipper, Daredevils seemed to have turned their corner, with a convincing 55-run victory against Kolkata Knight Riders in Iyer's captaincy debut.
But the joy was short lived after they lost the momentum, suffering a 13-run defeat against the mighty Chennai Super Kings in their last match.
Iyer and Rishabh Pant have been carrying most of the weight on their shoulders as far as the batting is concerned. With three fifties so far, Delhi's new skipper would like to continue on his rich vein of form.
Pant has been Daredevils's top scorer this season, with 306 runs to his name. Even against Chennai in their last match, Pant's impressive 45-ball 79 helped Delhi come close to the massive 212-run target.
Young Prithvi Shaw has done reasonably well after being included in the squad of late. The others Glenn Maxwell, Jason Roy and Colin Munro have failed to live up to their billing.
Another player who has failed to shine this season is Gambhir, as a result he was dropped from the squad for the last two matches. It will be interesting to see whether he makes a comeback into the side.
As far as the bowling is concerned, Trent Boult has been their best bowler this campaign, with eleven wickets to his name.
However, the others have failed to support him properly.
Dan Christian, Avesh Khan, Amit Mishra and Mohammed Shami have struggled for form.
They bowlers have to quickly rediscover their form to prevent their opponents from taking them to the cleaners.
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals have struggled for consistency as well.
In seven matches, they won three and lost four to sit in fifth position, two points ahead of Delhi.
In the last match, Rajasthan Royals failed to chase down a 152-run target against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Barring their skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson, the other batsmen have failed to deliver on a consistent basis.
Samson has been their biggest positive this season, topping their run scoring charts with 279 runs. Rahane, who has 225 runs so far this season, was in good nick against Hyderabad in their last match with 65 runs.
They both are key components in Rajasthan's bid to put up a good total on board.
Otherwise, the explosive Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Heinrich Klaasen have been a huge disappointment so far. On a given day, they can be lethal and Rajasthan will hope that soon they gain their run-scoring touch.
In the bowling, young pacer Jofra Archer has been impressive, bagging six wickets in the two matches he has played this campaign.
Krishnappa Gowtham (5 wickets), Ben laughlin (5 wickets), Jaydev Unadkat (4 wickets), Shreyas Gopal (5 wickets) and Dhawal Kulkarni (2 wickets) have failed to take the stage on fire. As a unit they have struggled to deliver consistently and the team management will be keen to expect more from their bowlers.