Dubai: Shreyas Iyer’s Delhi Capitals have come second in their last two matches and suddenly, they find themselves in a whole new world of trouble. Their opponents for Tuesday (October 27) the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), after a rather disheartening 12 run loss to the Kings XI Punjab, will be coming into this encounter in the Indian Premier League.
In what has been a rather surprising period of IPL action, the teams in the bottom half of the IPL 2020 points table have picked up important points recently to boost up for the race for a place in the last four.
While this game will be the final roll of the dice for SRH, it will give DC an opportunity to gather some momentum before they square off against the other two teams in the top three positions – the Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore – in their final two league stage encounters.
The last time these two sides met earlier this season, timely wickets from Rashid Khan dented DC’s 163-run chase, and the Afghanistan star’s threat will loom large over the Capitals’ batting unit yet again today.
However, SRH themselves have a lot of issues to rectify on the batting front. David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have produced only flashes of brilliance, while Manish Pandey’s laborious 29-ball 15 against KXIP in their last game will be a major concern.
The SRH openers find themselves in the top 10 list for most runs this season, but the inconsistency with the willow and the inability to switch into fifth gear has affected their cause.
As for the Capitals’ batting, Shikhar Dhawan’s twin half-centuries followed by two centuries camouflaged an otherwise sorry show from the rest of the batsmen in their last few matches.
What’s more is that DC preferred experience over youth by bringing in Ajinkya Rahane at the expense of Prithvi Shaw against KKR, but the move backfired. While Shaw hasn’t been able to buy a run of late – 11 runs from his last four outings – DC would hope for either him or Rahane to get them off to a strong start.
All eyes, though, will be on Rishabh Pant, who will undoubtedly be hurting after being excluded from India’s T20I and ODI squads for the tour of Australia once IPL culminates in the second week of November.
Pant has been uncharacteristically slow and watchful in IPL 2020. He is striking the ball at just 117.29 this season, which is his second-worst strike rate since his debut season back in 2016 (130.26).
The young wicketkeeper-batsman will want to silence his critics and the occasion could not be any bigger, with the Capitals needing to arrest the losing streak and pick up an important win.
While Pant will need to ward off the Rashid threat on the Dubai surface that has aided spin bowling, the conditions could well work in favour of the Capitals, who have two of the best spinners this season in their ranks. Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel have used their variations to impress us.
Delhi Capitals Squad: Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tushar Deshpande, Prithvi Shaw, Daniel Sams, Harshal Patel, Mohit Sharma, Alex Carey, Avesh Khan, Praveen Dubey, Sandeep Lamichhane, Keemo Paul, Lalit Yadav.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: David Warner(c), Jonny Bairstow(w), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Jason Holder, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan, Khaleel Ahmed, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammad Nabi, Kane Williamson, Bavanaka Sandeep, Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Virat Singh, Basil Thampi, Sanjay Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Shahbaz Nadeem
