Delhi, which takes on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad on Sunday night, should be looking for capital gains from it’s top-order, dubbed the future of the India line-up — Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.
Adding to this is that seasoned campaigner Shikhar Dhawan regained form against Kolkata Knight Riders in the previous game.
With the race for qualification having reached the half-way stage, these batsmen should score big against a team that has lost the last two games and will be fighting to avoid a hat-trick of defeats.
Delhi’s young guns need look no farther than the legends in the dugout for inspiration — Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly — to sustain the winning momentum.
In bowling too, Delhi sports a settled look with pace handled by the fiery Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris, Trent Boult and Ishant Sharma and spin by experienced leggie Amit Mishra (who might be preferred tomorrow) and left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
Sunrisers, playing its 100th IPL match, would definitely want it to be a memorable one.
It will be interesting to see whether captain Kane Williamson, rested to recover from a shoulder injury, will shore up the batting at the expense of Mohammad Nabi.
For, on form it is unlikely that the explosive opening pair of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, which has a record three century partnerships in this edition, will be disturbed for the latter doubles up as wicketkeeper.
Strangely, the Sunrisers bowling unit has taken some beating and is not the feared attack any more.
Stand-in captain and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been inconsistent in the death overs, compounding the team’s woes. His new-ball partners Sandeep Sharma and Siddharth Kaul, too, were expensive and it was left to the reliable spin duo of Afghans Nabi and leggie Rashid Khan to raise the bar.
Sunday’s match also raises the prospects of battles within the battle between Warner and Rabada, Dhawan and former teammate Bhuvneshwar and Rishabh Pant and Rashid Khan.
The Teams (from):
Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer(capt), Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant(wk), Colin Ingram, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Hanuma Vihari, Ankush Bains, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Chris Morris, Sherfane Rutherford, Jalaj Saxena, Sandeep Lamichhane, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nathu Singh, Bandaru Ayyappa, Colin Munro.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (capt), Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, David Warner, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Martin Guptill, Vijay Shankar, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami, Khaleel Ahmed, Billy Stanlake, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem.
Match starts at 8 pm.
