Delhi Capitals have won the toss and elected to bowl first in the first of the reverse fixtures of this IPL 2021 season.
Rishabh Pant says his side is unchanged while Punjab Kings are playing Dawid Malan in place of Nicolas Pooran. Malan, in fact, is the current world number one batter in T20 Internationals. Mayank Agarwal had been dropped for the previous game and comes in, in place of KL Rahul who has been sidelined due to acute appendicitis.
KL Rahul, the season’s highest-scorer at the moment with 331 runs from 7 matches, has been sidelined for a while after being diagnosed with acute appendicitis.
The franchise released a statement hours before the match and said the skipper had been admitted to a local hospital and will be undergoing a surgery soon.
"KL Rahul complained of a severe abdomen pain last night and after not responding to medication, he was taken to the emergency room for further tests which revealed he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis. It will be resolved surgically and, for safety measures, he has been transferred to a hospital," said PBKS in a statement released through their social media handles.
The Punjab franchise are coming into the match on the back of a big win over the strong Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side, winning the match by 34 runs. DC won their previous match by seven wickets, against Kolkata Knight Riders.
DC, however, will be tough with their power-packed batting. Punjab Kings will hope that Mohammed Shami uses some of his swing to get rid of the in-form Prithvi Shaw early.
DC's batting goes very deep and it will be a challenge for PBKS. Punjab batting too will have their hands full against a strong DC bowling line-up.
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