Injury-hit Delhi Capitals face uphill challenge against Dhoni's CSK
Written by I Dig Sports
Match details
Delhi Capitals (DC) vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
Visakhapatnam, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)
Big picture: Capitals on shaky (home) ground
CSK's batting has so much depth and power that they haven't needed Dhoni to bat. Though Rishabh Pant has had a promising start in his comeback, and David Warner has had breezy starts, the top-heavy Capitals don't have as much batting depth. Their bowling attack isn't in healthy shape either, with Ishant Sharma injured and both Anrich Nortje and Jhye Richardson on a comeback trail from injury. Shai Hope has also joined the injury list and missed their last game.
Capitals will also have to adjust to the conditions in Visakhapatnam, where they will play back-to-back games on March 31 against CSK and on April 3 against Kolkata Knight Riders. Capitals had picked Visakhapatnam to host their first two home games to allow the Delhi venue time to recover, according to their co-owner Parth Jindal. Capitals have lost three of the five IPL games they've played in Visakhapatnam, including a defeat to CSK in the second qualifier in IPL 2019.
In IPL 2023, Capitals had started with five successive defeats and soon reached a point of no return. They will be hoping to remedy that and hit the ground running from Sunday, having already lost their first two.
Team news and Impact Player strategy
Delhi Capitals
Probable XII: 1 David Warner, 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Ricky Bhui/Prithvi Shaw, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Abishek Porel, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Mukesh Kumar, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Khaleel Ahmed, 12 Lalit Yadav
Chennai Super Kings
CSK have found a way to fit both Matheesha Pathirana and Mustafizur Rahman into their XI or XII. One of them should make way for Dube as an Impact Player when they bat.
Probable XII: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Sameer Rizvi, 8 MS Dhoni (wk), 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Matheesha Pathirana, 12 Mustafizur Rahman
In the spotlight
Rishabh Pant has passed the wicketkeeping test and is working his way back with the bat. He got starts against both Punjab Kings and Royals, and has a strong record against CSK in the IPL: 324 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 156.52.
If Pant can get a few big hits away, he could potentially keep Ravindra Jadeja and other left-arm fingerspinners out of the attack. There is a case for Axar Patel to be promoted up the order as well to disrupt CSK's left-arm fingerspinners.
Stats that matter
Quotes
"We go on the road now for a couple of games against Delhi and Sunrisers Hyderabad and it's always a challenge playing away from home in different conditions that we're not used to. So, I think it will be a great challenge for the team."
Michael Hussey, CSK batting coach
"We're very confident that we will be able to turn things around. It's against a good CSK team but we know our best cricket is going to be good enough against anybody."
Ricky Ponting, Delhi Capitals head coach
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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