Indian bowlers of Delhi Capitals will have to perform better against Gujarat
When the Delhi Capitals team takes on the defending champions Gujarat Titans at their home ground in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday, they will expect a better performance from their bowlers. On the other hand, Gujarat are on a high after defeating Chennai Super Kings in the opening match. Gujarat Titans look strong on paper despite Kane Williamson being ruled out of the tournament due to a serious knee injury. Delhi Capitals were handed a crushing defeat by Lucknow Super Giants by 50 runs in the opening match of the season.
The biggest disappointment for the team in this match was the Indian fast bowlers who failed to trouble the Lucknow batsmen. Chetan Sakaria and Mukesh Kumar are known to bowl accurate line lengths but against Lucknow both were quite ineffective in terms of pace and variety needed to trouble the internationals. In such a situation, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya, who are running in excellent rhythm, will not have any problem in scoring runs against them. Khaleel Ahmed did some decent work with the ball in the opening match but has been a flop in the fielding department.
He dropped the catch of Kyle Myers against Lucknow which cost the team dearly. Delhi have an experienced bowler in Ishant Sharma but it is understood that the team management roped in the 100-Test player at his base price to show respect. Ishant can be used as an ‘impact player’. However, observers of Delhi’s practice sessions believe that his pace and sharpness have dropped significantly. South Africans Enrich Norkia and Lungi Ngidi have reached India and will be available for selection for Tuesday’s match.
In such a situation, coach Ricky Ponting and Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly will have to struggle hard to make a team combination with four foreign players. The team can give Mustafizur Rahman a chance in the XI in place of left-arm bowler Sakariya to sharpen the fast bowling, but Riley Rosso will have to sit out for this. In the batting department, skipper David Warner would like Indian batsmen like Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan to take on the fast bowlers better. Both of them were troubled by Mark Wood with his pace.
The team will have to find a way to score quick runs against Mohammed Shami and Pandya apart from Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal and Rashid Khan. Indian players like Ripple Patel, Lalit Yadav and Aman Hakeem Khan have a lot of experience in domestic cricket but have not shown the ability to turn matches in the IPL. Squad: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Shubman Gill, Kona Bharat, Wriddhiman Saha, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Mohammed Shami, Pradeep Sangwan, R Sai Kishore, Vijay Shankar, Sai Sudarshan, Rashid Khan, Shivam Mavi, Matthew Wade, Odion Smith , Urvil Patel, Darshan Nalkande, David Miller (unavailable in first 2 matches), , Yash Dayal, Jayant Yadav, Noor Ahmed and Alzarri Joseph.
Delhi Capitals: David Warner (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Riley Rosso, Sarfaraz Khan, Phil Salt, Abhishek Porel, Akshar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Lalit Yadav, Ripple Patel, Ishant Sharma, Chetan Sakaria , Khaleel Ahmed, Aman Hakim Khan, Praveen Dubey, Kamlesh Nagerkoti, Yash Dhull, Mukesh Kumar and Vicky Ostwal. The match will start at 7:30 pm.
