After the opening match of the Indian Premier League 2020 between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi, the action will now move to Dubai where Delhi Capitals will square off with Kings XI Punjab in the second match of the lucrative T20 tournament on Sunday.
The clash between Kings XI and Delhi Capitals will be the battle of equals as both sides have failed to clinch the coveted trophy in the last twelve seasons and are determined to lift their maiden title heading into the 13th season of the lucrative T20 tournament.
In fact, the two sides have managed to make it to the knock-out stages only once in the last seven years of the IPL, with Kings XI Punjab slumping to defeat in the summit showdown of 2014 edition and Delhi Capitals reaching the second qualifier last year.
The game will also offer a chance to witness two young leaders–Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul–going up against each other.
While 2019 was Iyer’s first full season as the captain of the Delhi-based franchise, Rahul will be leading Kings XI Punjab for the first time in this year’s season.
Both captains will head into the 13th season of the cash-rich league hoping to lift an elusive IPL trophy for the first time.
Following a decent outing last season, Delhi Capitals has retained most of their core players, including skipper Shreyas, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada.
While the Delhi-based franchise has released Colin Munro, Colin Ingram, and Chris Morris for this year’s IPL, they have acquired the services of Alex Carey and Jason Roy to strengthen their batting department.
Meanwhile, Chris Woakes, Lalit Yadav, Mohit Sharma and Tushar Deshpande have been roped in to boost Delhi’s bowling unit.The likes of experienced batsman Ajinkya Rahane and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have also been added.
Kings XI Punjab, on the other hand, bought the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, James Neesham, Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Chris Jordan and youngster Ishan Porel for this year’s league.
While Maxwell will provide strength to the middle order, Cottrell and Neesham will boost Punjab’s pace attack.
Going into the clash, Kings XI Punjab hold a slight advantage over the Delhi-based franchise as far as head-to-head record is concerned.The two sides have faced each other in a total of 24 matches in the IPL, with Kings XI winning 14 of them and Delhi Capitals emerging victorious on 10 occasions.
The two squads are as follows:
Delhi Capitals: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan Rishabh Pant (Wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Alex Carey, Kagiso Rabada, Shimron Hetmyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Keemo Paul, Mohit Sharma, Lalit Yadav, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, Tushar Deshpande, Daniel Sams
Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, James Neesham, Chris Jordan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Sheldon Cottrell, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, M Ashwin, J Suchith, Harpreet Brar, Darshan Nalkande, Deepak Hooda, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, Prabhsimran Singh.
The match will begin at 7.30 p.m IST in the absence of fans amid COVID-19 pandemic.The clash will be telecast on Star Sports Network, while the live streaming of the matches will also be available on Star’s streaming application Hotstar.
Source: Zee News