Kartik Raj Sharma
New Delhi: Delhi Capitals (DC) will face Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the second match of IPL 2020. Though Delhi’s team looks strong ahead of Punjab. Let’s see who wins in today’s match.
The 2 most successful teams face off in the first match of the 13th season of IPL, while Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab will face each other in the second match on Sunday. None of them have named IPL titles yet. Where Kings XI Punjab has played IPL final once, Delhi Capitals have not played the final in a single season.
After performing well for the first 2 years, Delhi’s performance continued to deteriorate. But when Delhi changed its name to Delhi Capitals in the 12th season and appointed new captain Shreyas Ear, Delhi’s performance continued to improve. The following season, he made it to the playoffs after a 7-year long gap. On the other hand, Punjab has always been a team that looked strong with good players from the start of the league but the players could not perform well when the time came.
The Delhi team strengthened their batting this year by releasing some under-performing players such as Colin Munro, Colin Ingram and Chris Morris, in return by bringing in some T20 players like Alex Carrie Marcus Stoinis and Hetmyer. Daniel Samay Mohit Sharma, Lalit Yadav, Tusshar Deshpande have also been strengthened by including the team.
Apart from these, Delhi Capitals have also traded Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin to other teams. Among the batsmen near Delhi, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Year. The same all-rounder stars Akshar Patel, Marcus Stoinis and Daniel Sam. While in the fast bowling department, apart from Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel. Among the bowlers, Rabada took 25 wickets in the last 12 matches. At the same time, his spin department is looking very strong this time, which includes legendary players like Ashwin and Amit Mishra.
On the other hand, Punjab has always had top level players but if one or two editions are left behind, the team loses its rhythm in all the editions so far. The team reached the semi-finals in the first edition of the league played in 2008 and finished runners-up in 2014 and lost to KKR in the final.
Kings XI Punjab, along with Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, is the third team to not win the title yet. This time, opener Lokesh Rahul is captaining the team. The team has released last season’s captain Ashwin this season. Punjab has shown confidence in Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, James Neesham, Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Chris Jordan and Ishaan Porel. Maxwell will definitely strengthen the middle order and Neesham and Cottrell will give stability to Punjab’s fast bowling.
Given the strength and weakness of both the teams and the mood of the pitch, Delhi’s table is looking heavy on Punjab. Because Delhi have experienced spinners in the form of Ashwin and Amit Mishra who can turn the match at any time on UAE’s slow pitches.
Kings XI Punjab Team: Lokesh Rahul (Captain), Karun Nair, Mohammed Shami, Nicholas Pooran, Mujib ur Rehman, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Herds Wijolen, Darshan Nalakande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin , K. Gautham, J Suchith, Glenn Maxwell, Shelton Cottrell, Deepak Hooda, Ishaan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, James Neesham, Chris Jordan, Tejinder Dhillon, Prabhasimran Singh
Delhi Capitals team: Shreyas Iyer (captain) Ajinkya Rahane, Alex Carey, Jason Roy, Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shikhar Dhawan, Shimran Hetmyer, Akshar Patel, Chris Woakes, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Chemo Paul, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Mohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sandeep Lamichane, Tushar Deshpande
Also read in Hindi: IPL 2020: क्या पंजाब की पलटन रोक पाएगी, दिल्ली के धुरंधरों को