Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel would like to quickly forget the underwhelming performances of his side in home conditions and get their stuttering campaign back on track when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad, who are teetering on the edge of elimination, in the IPL match in Hyderabad on Monday.
Recent defeats for Delhi Capitals --- the latest being the 14-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders -- have seen their campaign take a beating but they have still managed to keep their play-off hopes alive thanks to success on rival territory, something they will be eyeing when they face Pat Cummins's side.
Axar Patel walked off the field during KKR's batting after injuring his left hand on April 30 and it remains to be seen if the charismatic all-rounder has recovered fully in the intervening period.
He suffered a bruise while fielding but despite the discomfort smashed a 23-ball 43. However, the wound, if not fully healed, could come in the way of the left-arm spinner bowling his full array of variations.
Delhi Capitals, currently placed fifth on the table with 12 points from 10 games, have in Axar a captain who has led from the front, and his absence -- or even a curtailed role -- could harm the team, given that they desperately need to find the winning ways after two successive defeats at home -- to KKR and RCB.
Having suffered three defeats in their last five matches, Delhi Capitals cannot afford any more hiccups at the business end of the tournament.
The return to form of South African stalwart Faf du Plessis with a fine half-century against KKR, albeit in a losing cause, would have gladdened the hearts of the team's think-tank but his adaptability to slower surfaces remains a matter of concern.
K L Rahul is DC's leading run-getter this season, with 371 runs in nine games, but he could not accelerate in the home game against RCB, scoring 41 off 39 deliveries, while against KKR in the previous match he was brilliantly run-out by KKR stalwart Sunil Narine when on seven runs.
The wicketkeeper-batter will back himself to take on the likes of Cummins, Mohammed Shami and Harshal Patel, the SRH trio capable of upsetting the calculations of any side when on song.
Abhishek Porel too has batted with plenty of aggressive intent at the top of the order scoring over 250 runs, including a half century, but his inability to convert good starts into big scores has been his undoing so far this season.
DC's batting runs deep with someone like bowling all-rounder Vipraj Nigam also having the ability to score quick runs at the backend. But it's the bowling which gives them the confidence to go all out for a win.
With pacer Mitchell Starc leading an experienced attack that has the likes of Dushmantha Chameera and Mukesh Kumar, Delhi can be more than a handful. Add to that a fully-fit Axar and they have one of the most potent attacks in IPL 2025.
In the previous match against KKR, Starc and Axar shared five wickets between themselves though the reigning IPL champions still managed a 200-plus total, something that could be attributed to the nature of the wicket.
Sunrisers Hyderebad, on the other hand, have not been able to capitalise on the tons of experience they have in their ranks. With Cummins leading the team and having the services of Shami, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen and Jaydev Unadkat, that they are still struggling is something that defies logic.
India pacer Unadkat recently opened up on SRH's faltering IPL campaign, blaming their underwhelming performance to ineffective bowling and changing pitch conditions.
The team is all but out of the play-off race after suffering a 38-run defeat against Gujarat Titans on Friday.
Teams (from):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Smaran Ravichandran, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Travis Head, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Wiaan Mulder, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.
Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (captain), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, K L Rahul (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira, Tripurana Vijay, Dushmantha Chameera, Faf du Plessis, T Natarajan, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Manvanth Kumar L, Madhav Tiwari.
Match starts: 19:30 IST.
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