Delhi Daredevils will be hoping a return to their home ground will kick-start their season as they prepare to face high-flying Kings XI Punjab.
The Daredevils have spent the first two weeks of the IPL outside of Delhi, and have lost three of their four games in that time.
This will be the second match between the two teams, with Punjab having cantered to a six-wicket win against Delhi two weeks ago.
TALKING POINTS
CAPTAIN GAMBHIR NEEDS TO FIND FORM
Captain Gautam Gambhir will be hoping a return to the Feroz Shah Kotla, his home ground, leads to an upturn in his own fortunes as well as his team’s. He’s scored his runs at a strike rate of just 108, and apart from a solitary fifty his scores have been 8, 3, and 15.
What will offer him encouragement is that the fifty came against Punjab, and at a decent clip – he scored 55 off 42 in that game. An innings like that will allow the rest of Delhi’s batting line-up to play with less pressure.
CAN BOULT STOP RAHUL-GAYLE ONSLAUGHT?
Kings XI’s opening partnership has been the best of the tournament since the introduction of Chris Gayle, who has posted three straight 50+ scores – including a century. He and opening partner KL Rahul rank fourth and sixth, respectively, on the run charts. Rahul scored the IPL’s fastest-ever fifty the last time these two sides met, in just 14 balls.
It’ll be up to Trent Boult to stop Punjab’s openers from running riot. His left-arm angle should trouble both Gayle and Rahul, and that could be the key to the match.
PUNJAB MIDDLE ORDER NEEDS TO FIND FORM
Punjab’s top-order dominance has masked the poor form of everyone else. Apart from the openers, no player has faced 100 balls across the tournament, and only Karun Nair has scored over 100 runs.
Of particular concern is the form of Yuvraj Singh and Aaron Finch, who have 50 runs in six innings between them. The untested middle order is a glaring weakness.
LIKELY LINEUPS
Delhi Daredevils: Jason Roy, Gautam Gambhir (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Vijay Shankar, Chris Morris, Rahul Tewatia, Shahbaz Nadeem, Harshal Patel, Trent Boult
Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, R Ashwin (c), Mujeeb ur Rahman, Andrew Tye, Barinder Sran, Mohit Sharma
