After registering a fourth win on the trot a couple of nights ago in Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals will be eager to continue their unbeaten run in IPL 2025 when they host a bruised Mumbai Indians in their ‘original home’ at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national capital on Sunday.
After playing a couple of games at Visakhapatnam, Delhi Capitals will expect the same Kotla track to play to their advantage, as a few home teams have had issues with the way the pitches have behaved this season. On the other hand, MI, under lone warrior Hardik Pandya, would want to get some momentum back after losing four of their five games so far, and languishing at the penultimate spot in the points table.
Amid the chaos, the focus will be on India’s T20 World Cup-winning skipper Rohit Sharma, who has been battling for runs this season. He has managed only 38 runs in four matches he has played so far. But it would be easier said than done against a Delhi attack that has the best-performing spin unit led by skipper Axar Patel, alongside the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and rookie Vipraj Nigam.
Against MI, the Capitals skipper might once again open the bowling against Rohit, who doesn’t enjoy a match-up against left-arm spinners or wrist spinners. If Axar brings himself on first up or gives the ball to either Kuldeep or Vipraj, it would be an interesting battle on watch. Rohit, however, would prefer to face Mitchell Starc, against whom he has enjoyed some degree of success. However, with Starc being in prime form, it could be a juicy battle on the cards.
While Rohit would expect himself to break free at the top of the order, MI would also expect the likes of Tilak Varma and vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav to deliver consistently. While Tilak and Surya have enjoyed some sporadic success, they haven’t been authoritative.
The biggest positive for MI has been their skipper Hardik Pandya, who has single-handedly led the team with both the bat and ball, but hasn’t found the success he deserved. He would expect his star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who looked in fine rhythm despite playing his first game in three months in their previous match, to get the job done for his side.
Bumrah will be expected to take down KL Rahul, arguably the home team’s best batter on view, and other batters. The home top-order would have a slightly difficult challenge in terms of quality as to what they have faced till now.
Jake Fraser-McGurk has looked completely out of place but it hasn’t affected the team as it hasn’t chased big totals in two of the four games. Faf du Plessis, who has been under an injury cloud in recent times, will be expected to use his experience against the MI attack to get Delhi to another mammoth score. Similarly, Axar Patel and Abishek Porel will be tasked with dealing with the MI spin attack in the middle overs, and retain Delhi’s image of being the highest-scoring venue since last year.