Dubai. While the two most successful teams faced off in the first match of the 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), in the second match today, two teams – Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab will face each other, whose performance in the IPL is continuous and Has not been much special.
The Delhi franchise, which did not do well in the first 11 seasons, changed its name from Delhi Daredevils to Delhi Capitals in the 12th season and the team was also successful last year. On the other hand, Punjab has always been a team that looks strong on paper before the start of the league but the players are not able to perform well when the time comes.
In 2019, Delhi made it to the playoffs after a seven-year-long gap but lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK). After performing well last year, Delhi have retained their core team including captain Shreyas Iyer, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and Kagiso Rabada.
The team released some under-performing players such as Colin Munro, Colin Ingram and Chris Maurice. In return for these people, Delhi strengthened their batting by bringing Alex Carey, Jason Roy in their team. Chris Woakes, Mohit Sharma, Lalit Yadav, Tusshar Deshpande have also been strengthened by including the team. The franchise has also included Shimran Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis in their squad at an expensive price.
Apart from these people, Delhi has also bought Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin. Delhi has all-rounders like Akshar Patel, Marcus Stoinis and Chris Woakes. In the fast bowling department, apart from Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel.
In 2019, Delhi had success on the batting of Shikhar Dhawan, Pant and Shreyas. All three were among the top-10 batsmen in scoring runs. Among the bowlers, Rabada took 25 wickets in 12 matches. The team management will expect all of them to perform the same this season as they did in the previous season.
Delhi has strengthened its spin department by joining Ashwin. Ashwin, along with leg-spinner Amit Mishra, can cause trouble for the rest of the teams on slow and low pitches in the UAE.
At the same time, Punjab has always had top level players, but if one or two editions are left behind, the team loses its rhythm in all the editions so far. The team reached the semi-finals in the first edition of the league played in 2008 and was runners-up in 2014 and lost to KKR in the final.
Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore are the third team to not win the title yet. This time, opener Lokesh Rahul is captaining the team. Punjab has relied on Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, James Neesham, Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Chris Jordan and Ishaan Porel.
Kings XI also have Chris Gayle in the top order and he can turn the match alone. Lack of consistency in Gayle’s performance could be a problem for Punjab. And if he gets into the rhythm at the beginning of the season, he can overcome any challenge.
Much depends on how the opening pair of Gayle and Rahul play. The experienced Mohammed Shami will lead the fast bowling. The team will also have Herds Wijolen and Cottrell to accompany them. Bishnoi, Mujib ur Rehman and Murugan Ashwin are with the team in the spin attack.
As far as the support staff is concerned, the team also has Anil Kumble as head coach, Jonty Rhodes as fielding coach, Wasim Jaffer as batting coach, Sunil Joshi as spin bowling coach.
Teams (likely):
Kings XI Punjab – Lokesh Rahul (Captain), Karun Nair, Mohammed Shami, Nicholas Pooran, Mujib ur Rehman, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Herds Vijolen, Darshan Nalakande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshadip Singh, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin, K. Gautham, Jay Suchith, Glenn Maxwell, Shelton Cottrell, Deepak Hooda, Ishaan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, James Neesham, Chris Jordan, Tejinder Dhillon, Prabhasimran Singh.
Delhi Capitals – Shreyas Iyer (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Alex Carey, Jason Roy, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shikhar Dhawan, Shimran Hetmyer, Akshar Patel, Chris Woakes, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Chemo Paul, Amit Mishra , Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Mohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sandeep Lamichane, Tushar Deshpande.
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