The ‘organic’ gulaalcolour hasn’t entirely disappeared from the Rajasthan Royals players’ skin despite it being two days since Holi. They almost wear the color of their franchise on their body in the Pink City. An accidental attempt at branding.
The return of Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant is drawing more interest than the team’s uniform color. He will be leading the team, batting, and managing ‘keeping duties on his one-and-a-half-year return to competitive cricket. After their poor season last year, they will be looking to him as their savior.
He relishes taking on the Royals, a team he has had great success against in the past. But does Pant have enough to make up for all of DC’s shortcomings?
If DC was guaranteed the illusive trophy in the near future by their dominance in 2020 and 2021, then their results over the last two seasons have declined precipitously. They are beset by injuries, lack of availability, and a lackluster performance; even after multiple experiments, the team management is still far from coming up with a solution. They have lost ten of their last fifteen games.
DC’s flimsy middle-order looked susceptible last season, and it appears even more so now that Pant is out of the picture. Their middle order still looks scant because they are determined to keep Mitchell Marsh and David Warner as the opening Australian combination. They had some cause for celebration after Abhishek Porel’s brilliant innings in the previous game, but with only Rishabh Pant returning and Tristan Stubbs still to prove, the pressure on him, Ricky Bhui, Axar Patel, and Sumit Kumar is simply too great to manage the middle and lower middle order.
The squad manager, Sourav Ganguly, feels that the bowling group is prepared. The onus is on the hitters to get back up. Regretfully, the task has to be repeated against the formidable, versatile, and skilled bowling attack of the Royals in Jaipur. The good news for DC, however, is that the current Royals team hasn’t really mastered the Sawai Mansingh Stadium’s challenging pitch, even with their triumph in the previous game.
When: 7:30 PM IST on Thursday, March 28, 2023
Where: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur; Rajasthan Royals vs. Delhi Capitals, Match 9, IPL 2024
What to expect: The first game was mostly an easy-playing surface, however there were moments when the ball stayed low. Even though it’s Jaipur’s first nighttime game of the season, dew isn’t anticipated to play a significant role thus early in the competition. The field has occasionally shown signs of being challenging, so players may need to make quick adjustments.
Collective Eye:
Royals of Rajasthan:
All players are available for the match despite their injuries.
Strategies & Matchups: The Impact Substitute plan, which gives the hosts the option to select between Rovman Powell and Nadre Burger as the fourth foreign player, is predicated on the toss as much as the match circumstances, even though they may not wish to tinker with their lineup. They have the chance to target Powell before the hard-hitting southpaw, even though they may have to wait a little while for Shimron Hetmyer to get back to his previous level of play.
The probable eleven are Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Rovman Powell/Nandre Burger.
Capitals of Delhi:
Anrich Nortje, who was out from the previous game for personal reasons, has returned to the squad. Both Mukesh Kumar and Ishant Sharma are healthy and available for the match.
Strategies & Matchups: Despite his best efforts, Sanju Samson has not been able to score at the rate he usually does against Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, despite his attacks on left-arm spinners during the last three IPL seasons. It is anticipated that the DC spin combination will once more contain Samson’s strokeplay during the middle overs.
Possible XII: Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Abhishek Porel, Ricky Bhui, Rishabh Pant, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar/Kumar Kushagra
Were you aware?
With a strike rate of 91.46, Riyan Parag has only managed to score 75 runs in 7 innings against the Delhi Capitals. He would try to break that record by moving up to No. 4 in the batting order.
Against the Rajasthan Royals, Rishabh Pant hit four fifty-score runs in nine innings, all with a strike rate of 170.
What they expressed:
We choose to open with Mitchell Marsh and David Warner. A batsman of the middle order is Ricky Bhui. They use different positions when they bat. Prithvi Shaw is not Ricky Bhui, but it is an alternative opening combo. We chose to open with them as they opened for Australia at the top and performed well together. – Sourav Ganguly on Delhi Capitals not selecting Prithvi Shaw for the opening game.
Over the past few years, we haven’t played at SMS very often. When we returned the previous year, I don’t think we were as aware of the adjustments we needed to make to our mindset and strategies in order to compete on this level. The top soil and pitches have been redone. All you have to do is change your perspective on what is being offered, follow the strategy, and have faith that you can put in the effort needed on this pitch. Hopefully, this year’s players are more prepared for the unpredictable nature of the surface. – Kumar Sangakkara on the cause behind the Rajasthan Royals’ disappointing performance in Jaipur during the previous season.
