Delhi Capitals’ captain Rishabh Pant has won the toss and elected to bowl first against KL Rahul’s Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium in Sunday’s evening game.
Delhi have made two changes - adding Steve Smith to the playing XI in place of Tom Curran. Meriwala too is playing in place of... ‘someone’, says Pant at the toss.
M Ashwin makes way for Jalaj Saxena in Punjab’s XI and captain KL Rahul said the team was looking to put behind their crushing defeat in the last match against Chennai Super Kings.
"Those things happen with every team, every season, it's important that you forget it. You learn a little just in case you're in that situation again. Jalaj Saxena comes in for M Ashwin.. It's been hard to read the pitch, generally Wankhede is high scoring. If you have wickets in hand, then you can assess later," said Rahul.
Both teams come into the match on the heels of defeats in their previous outings. Delhi suffered a disheartening loss against Rajasthan Royals while Punjab Kings are coming off a demoralising loss against Chennai Super Kings.
The Rishabh Pant-led DC side which got off to a flying start by thrashing CSK in the first match suffered a meltdown in the next match on Thursday as they lost to Rajasthan Royals despite having them on the mat at 42 for five.
PBKS, on the other hand, had a miserable outing on Friday night against CSK who restricted the K.L. Rahul-led Punjab franchise to just 106/8 in 20 overs and then cruised to a six-wicket win.
Delhi Capitals XI
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Steven Smith, Rishabh Pant (captain, wicketkeeper), Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Lukman Meriwala
Punjab Kings XI
Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (captain, wicketkeeper), Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Shahrukh Khan, Jhye Richardson, Jalaj Saxena, Mohammed Shami, Riley Meredith, Arshdeep Sing
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