IPL-2024: Rajasthan Royals to take on Delhi Capitals at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur: DC Opt to bowl
In IPL, Rajasthan Royals will take on Delhi Capitals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur this evening. The Match will start at 7.30 PM. Delhi Capitals have won the toss and have opted to field
Although it’s been two days since Holi, the ‘organic’ gulaalcolour hasn’t completely left the skin of the Rajasthan Royals players as yet. In the Pink City, they are literally wearing the colour of their franchise on their bodies. An unintentional branding exercise.
For Delhi Capitals, it’s not their jersey colour that’s attracting as much attention as the return of their captain, Rishabh Pant. Batting, handling ‘keeping duties and leading the side on his return to competitive cricket after a year and a half, he is expected to be their messiah following their disappointing run last season in his absence.
He enjoys facing Royals, a team against whom he has had tremendous success in the past. But is there enough in Pant to cover up for all of DC’s inadequacies?
If the dominance of 2020 and 2021 promised DC the elusive trophy in the near future, the performances of the last two seasons have witnessed a freefall. They have lost 10 of their last 15 games, and are plagued by injuries, unavailability and indifferent form, despite several experiments, the team management are far from finding a fix.
Pant’s absence may have been a key missing link in DC’s fragile middle-order last season, but it seems to be just as vulnerable right now. With their insistence on retaining the opening Australian combination of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh, their middle order continues to wear a thin look.
Abhishek Porel’s explosive innings in the previous game would have given them some reasons to be delighted, but the burden on him along with Ricky Bhui, Axar Patel and Sumit Kumar is way too much to marshall the middle and lower-middle order with only a returning Rishabh Pant and yet-to-fire Tristan Stubbs.
The bowling pack is ready, believes team mentor Sourav Ganguly. It’s on the batters to pick themselves up. The challenge, unfortunately, resumes against the potent, varied and experienced bowling attack of Royals in Jaipur. The good news for DC though is that the current lot of Royals players, despite the victory in the previous game, haven’t fully aced the conditions of the tricky pitch at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Squads:
Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Nandre Burger, Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Shubham Dubey, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Prasidh Krishna, Donovan Ferreira, Abid Mushtaq, Kunal Singh Rathore
Delhi Capitals Squad: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ricky Bhui, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Abishek Porel, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Vicky Ostwal, Praveen Dubey, Jhye Richardson, Anrich Nortje, Prithvi Shaw, Lalit Yadav, Rasikh Dar Salam, Kumar Kushagra, Yash Dhull, Swastik Chikara.
