Delhi Capitals opt to bowl vs Chennai Super Kings
Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel captain won the toss and elected to bowl against Chennai Super Kings on a fresh red-soil pitch at Chepauk. They made one change, swapping out legspin-bowling allrounder for seamer Auqib Nabi. This will be Nabi’s first game in the IPL.
Nabi, 29, was the top wicket-taker, with 60 strikes, in Jammu & Kashmir’s run to their maiden Ranji Trophy title. Ashutosh Sharma or Nitish Rana could come in as DC’s Impact Player when they chase.
CSK made two changes, bringing back middle-order batter Dewald Brevis, who has recovered sufficiently from a side injury, and handing an IPL debut to Tamil Nadu left-arm quick Gurjapneet Singh. There was no room for New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry and local left-arm spin-bowling allrounder Prashant Veer, who is yet to bowl in the IPL.
Gurjapneet, 27, recently played for India A and has been among the best death bowlers in the Tamil Nadu Premier League.
Apart from Brevis, Jamie Overton and Noor were the overseas players for CSK in their bat-first XI. There was no place for Kartik Sharma, who was instead on the Impact Sub bench. CSK could consider bringing in Henry or Akeal Hosein as an Impact Sub when they bowl later in the evening.
CSK bat-first XI: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed, Gurjapneet Singh
Impact Sub bench: Matt Short, Akeal Hosein, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Matt Henry
DC bowl-first XI: 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Sameer Rizvi, 4 Axar Patel (capt), 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 David Miller, 7 Auqib Nabi, 8 Lungi Ngidi, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Mukesh Kumar
Impact Sub bench: Vipraj Nigam, Ashutosh Sharma, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, Nitish Rana
