New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) A closer look at the campaigns of Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians easily reveal that their fortunes in IPL 2023 have more or less been the same. Both teams are yet to have a victory against their name — Delhi have lost their first three games while Mumbai have been on the losing side in their first two matches.
Though it is still early days in IPL 2023, Tuesday’s clash between these two teams at the Arun Jaitley Stadium gives a chance to both teams to resurrect their campaign by breaking their respective winless streaks and avoid putting themselves on the path of an early exit from the competition.
The problems for Delhi are literally huge — having used 16 players in their three games, but are yet to zero on a balanced combination. With the bat, captain David Warner has notched up two half-centuries, but with wickets falling from the other end, he hasn’t been able to accelerate and that has resulted in his strike rate standing at a lowly 117.03.
His opening partner, Prithvi Shaw, on the other hand, has played only 17 balls in three outings at the crease, with his problems of playing at high pace showing up. With Mitchell Marsh unavailable, Rilee Rossouw and Rovman Powell haven’t stepped up to do the bulk of scoring while Manish Pandey was dismissed for a golden duck and would be itching to get big runs on Delhi’s return to playing at home.
In bowling, left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed suffered a hamstring niggle in Delhi’s 57-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals and may not be available for this game. In his absence, Chetan Sakariya serves as a like-for-like pick.
If the pitch gives ample assistance to the bowlers, like it did in last week’s game against Gujarat Titans, then expect him, Mukesh Kumar, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel to put up an improved show, something which has played a role in Delhi’s downfall in three matches.
On the other hand, Mumbai would be expecting the solid Indian trio of captain Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav to put up a good show with the bat, with Tilak Varma being the lone bright spot. The trio, who are regulars in India’s white-ball set-up, have collectively made just 80 runs from Mumbai’s first two matches, with Cameron Green yet to fire with the bat and ball too.
But Mumbai’s main headache lies in their wafer-thin bowling attack. In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Jhye Richardson, they were hugely dependent on Jofra Archer to spearhead the bowling attack.
With Archer experiencing discomfort in his right elbow and missing the match against Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai are unlikely to put him on the field on Tuesday, leaving Jason Behrendorff, Riley Meredith, Arshad Khan, Kumar Kartikeya and Piyush Chawla to do the heavy lifting with the ball.
With four out of last five matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium being won by chasing teams, both Delhi and Mumbai will have to put their best foot forward in all departments of the game as only one of them will be able to shrug off their winless streak on Tuesday.
Squads:
Delhi Capitals: David Warner (captain), Khaleel Ahmed, Aman Khan, Yash Dhull, Praveen Dubey, Sarfaraz Khan (wicketkeeper), Kuldeep Yadav, Lalit Yadav, Mitchell Marsh, Mukesh Kumar, Mustafizur Rahman, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Vicky Ostwal, Manish Pandey, Ripal Patel, Axar Patel, Rovman Powell, Rilee Rossouw, Chetan Sakariya, Phil Salt, Ishant Sharma, Prithvi Shaw and Abishek Porel.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tristan Stubbs, Jofra Archer, Jason Behrendorff, Vishnu Vinod, Cameron Green, Arjun Tendulkar, Ramandeep Singh, Shams Mulani, Riley Meredith, Nehal Wadhera, Hrithik Shokeen, Arshad Khan, Duan Jansen, Piyush Chawla, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Raghav Goyal and Akash Madhwal.
–IANS
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