Delhi Capitals will be looking for capital gains from its top order which is dubbed as the future of the Indian line-up itself — including Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant — when it takes on Sunrisers Hyderabad here on Sunday night.
The line-up also includes the seasoned Shikhar Dhawan, who regained his wonted form against Kolkata Knight Riders in the side’s previous contest on Friday.
With the race for qualifiers reaching the half-way stage, these batsmen should score big if Capitals is to challenge a team that has lost the last two games and is keen to avoid a hat-trick of defeats. The young guns of Capitals need not look too far for inspiration than Ricky Ponting, the head coach, and Sourav Ganguly, the advisor, to sustain its winning momentum.
In bowling, Capitals sports a settled look, too. The fast bowling department is manned by the likes of the fiery Kagiso Rabada, Chris Morris, Trent Boult and Ishant Sharma, and spin by the experienced legspinner Amit Mishra (who might be preferred on Sunday) and left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
Williamson in for Nabi?
On the other hand, Sunrisers, playing its 100th match in the IPL, will definitely want it to be a memorable one. It will be interesting to see whether captain Kane Williamson, who was rested to recover from a shoulder injury in the previous games, shores up the batting, with the think-tank leaving out Mohammad Nabi on Sunday. For, on form, it is unlikely that the explosive, settled opening pair of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, which put on a record three century partnerships in this edition, will be disturbed. After all, the latter doubles up as a wicketkeeper, too.
Strangely, Sunrisers’ bowling unit has taken some beating so far, and is not the feared attack it once was any more. Stand-by captain and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been inconsistent in the death overs which is compounding the team’s woes. His new-ball partners Sandeep Sharma and Siddharth Kaul, too, have also been expensive, and it was left to the reliable spin duo of Afghans — off-spinner Nabi and leg-spinner Rashid Khan — to raise the bar.
This apart, Sunday’s contest might also witness an exciting contest within a battle between Warner and Rabada, Dhawan and his former team-mate Bhuvneshwar, and Rishabh Pant and Rashid Khan.
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