By K Aditya
Dubai, Sep 21 (UNI) Delhi Capitals will start their campaign in the second phase of IPL 2021 on Wednesday when they take on a struggling Sunrisers Hyderabad here.
To the Capital's advantage, they will have their captain Shreyas Iyer back in the tournament. Iyer missed out the first leg due to injury. The side is currently placed second with 12 points from eight games.
The Hyderabad outfit, on the other hand, is at the bottom of the table with just one win from seven matches.
This could play in Delhi Capital's favour who are looking to take back the top spot from Chennai Super Kings.
The side has batsmen like orange cap holder Shikhar Dhawan (380 runs in eight games), Prithvi Shaw (308 runs), Rishabh Pant (213 runs), Ajinkya Rahane (8 runs in 2 games) Steve Smith (104 runs in six games), Shimron Hetmyer (84 runs in six games).
However, Rahane struggled to find a place for himself in the line-up and with Iyer returning, the Indian Test team vice-captain is unlikely to play.
Likewise for their bowling, the squad will see the return of South African players Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada, who took 30-plus wickets together in the last IPL in Dubai. Nortje did not get to play any match in the first phase and will be eager to be among wicket-takers ahead of the T20 World Cup.
The season also saw the rise of Avesh Khan, who scalped 14 wickets in eight games. Apart from them, the team also has capable backups in Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Tom Curran and new recruit Ben Dwarshuis.
The last year's finalist also has a strong arsenal of spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav and Pravin Dubey.
For Sunrisers, on the other hand, the match is all about staying in the competition. To make things worse, the team's leading run-scorer Johnny Bairstow has pulled out of the tournament, which increases the burden on their captain David Warner (193 runs). This also means that Kane Williamson, who often did not find a spot in line-up, could be part of the playing eleven.
The Indian batting contingent of SRH has really disappointed in the recent past and that is why names like Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar are not part of the Indian set-up. The side also has Kashmir player Abdul Samad who is capable of heavy-hitting down the order.
The onus of picking wickets for Sunrisers has been with their Afghan spin wizard Rashid Khan with 10 wickets to his name but SRH are not the formidable bowling unit as they once were.
However, things could quickly change if Bhuvneshwar Kumar returns with a bang. Still, the likes of Basil Thampi, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul and Vijay Shankar have to find their A-game if SRH want to turn things around.
Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Ripal Patel, Shikhar Dhawan, Shimrom Hetmyar, Shreyas Iyer, Steve Smith, Amit Mishra, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan, Ben Dwarshuis, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Kulwant Khejroliya, Lukman Meriwala, Pravin Dubey, Tom Curran, Umesh Yadav, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sam Billings and Vishnu Vinod.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (Captain), David Warner, Manish Pandey, Sherfane Rutherford, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Basil Thampi, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Abdul Samad, J Suchith, Jason Holder, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Jason Roy. UNI KND SC