IPL says ‘Hello Dubai!’
The second match of the IPL will see Delhi Capitals take on Kings Xl Punjab, at the Dubai sports city cricket stadium in Dubai.
The Delhi team has been in the news quite a lot, the recent instance being when the co-owner of Delhi Capitals Mr. Parth Jindal senior director of Indian business conglomerate JSW came out and said it would be his failure if Delhi Capitals don’t reach the playoffs in this years IPL.
This statement would have been blasphemous if it was 2018. But this is 2020 and 2019 was a breakthrough season for Delhi Capitals, they moved on from the name Delhi Daredevils, brought in Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting, and things began to change, finishing third; the confidence is wellplaced.
My starting eleven Delhi Capitals
Delhi Capitals have a great squad to choose from this season.
Led by the nonchalant mumbaikar Shreyas Iyer, this Delhi team plays fearless cricket. They have a set opening pair in Prithvi Shaw and Sikhar Dhawan. Followed by the captain Shreyas at 3. The mercurial Rishab Pant will be at 4. The finishers job will rest upon Simron Hetmyer and Marcus stoinis, at 5 and 6 respectively. Number 7 will be Keemo Paul, a bowler who relies heavily on slow cutters and will find the playing surface much to his liking. No 8 and 9 will be the two spinners Ashwin and Mishra. Ashwin was traded in from Kings eleven this season, and would hope that he is spoken about more because of his bowling than other activities on the cricket field. Mishra the wily old fox has been around for a bit and will be very difficult to score off in these conditions. The lineup will be completed by Rabada at 10 and Mohit Sharma at 11. Well Rabada is one of the best fast bowlers in the world and it would be interesting to see how he starts off after this long enforced break from cricket. Mohit on the other hand will play because Ishant unfortunately suffered an injury in training. No one obviously wants to get a break in the eleven like this, but now that he has the opportunity Mohit must try and do his best.
Rahane, Alex Carey, Axar Patel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Harshal Patel though not in my starting eleven in this one, will play a big role in the tournament later on though.
My starting eleven Kings XI Punjab
Well what can I say. They are well supported, have great owners but somehow they never seem to find the consistency to make it to the top four.
This year they will be led by KL Rahul and coached by Anil Kumble. KL Rahul is a complete batsman, one of the few who has a century in all three formats of the game. But as IPL 2018 will tell you, where he was outstanding with the bat, he alone cannot get you the cup. This is Anil Kumble’s first coaching assignment post the unceremonious sacking from the Indian Cricket Team. I am sure he will have a point to prove. Let’s see how that episode pans out.
Rahul most likely will open the batting with the self proclaimed ‘ Universal Boss’ Chris Gayle. Well Mr. Gayle is almost at the end of his career and remains to be seen how consistent he can play/score this season. At 3 will be Mayank Agarwal, a recent inductee into the Indian test squad, he has scored a ton of runs and will be high on confidence. At 4 I will have Nicholas Pooran, this extremely talented left hand bat is coming off a rich vein of form from the CPL and is a fantastic player of spin. His story where he had a horrific leg injury from a car crash, when he couldn’t play cricket for more than a year, and had a steel implant in his leg to now where he is one of the most destructive bats in the world is truly remarkable, and a story worth telling over and over again. At 5 will be the man who can win you the match single handedly on his day, Maxwell. He can also chip in with a few overs of spin, and is a gun fielder, an asset for any team really. At 6 will be someone who is a natural finisher, Mandeep Singh. He also brings a lot of energy on the field and can roll over his arm too. Krishnappa Gowtham will occupy the no 7 spot, this tall offspinner from Karnataka can hit a long ball as well, providing much needed firepower to the lower middle order. Number 8 and 9 will be the fast bowlers MD Shami and Ishan Porel. Shami is a proven match winner, an India regular where as Porel is a newcomer into the team from the under 19 world cup winning team of 2018. 10 and 11 will be the spinners Murugan Ashwin and the sensation from Afghanistan Mujeeb.
Punjab looks light on the fast bowling department, but for me Mujeeb plays ahead of the West Indian left arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell. It’s a long tournament and players like Sarfaraz Khan, Cottrell, Ravi Bishnoi will definitely get a chance later on to make their mark.
#MyPrediction
Delhi Capitals are likely to triump, unless we have an extraordinary individual effort from someone in the King’s XI camp.
