It is the battle of young captains in IPL 2021 on Thursday. Rajasthan Royals gets ready to take on Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium in the seventh match of IPL 2021. Both teams have new captains this season. Sanju Samson has been appointed full-time captain, while Rishabh Pant is filling in for injured Shreyas Iyers.
Pant-led Delhi Capitals had started the new season with a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings. Alternatively, Rajasthan had lost their last game to Punjab Kings in a nail-biting finish that included a spectacular century from skipper Samson. The match is set to be played at Wankhede, where the pitches are a paradise for batsmen. A score above 190 will be a competitive score, but a victory is not guaranteed as Rajasthan almost chased down Punjab’s target of 220 runs in the last game. The weather too will be humid with no rain during the match, though a little dew will persist.Â
DC looked strong and confident having won the last five games against RR. However, the overall head-to-head record paints a much-balanced picture. In 22 games between these two sides, both have won 11 each.
Team News
Rajasthan will obviously be looking forward to bouncing back from defeat, but that may be a difficult task now given that Jofra Archer, last year’s most dominant bowler, is still not back and now their star all-rounder Ben Stokes has also been ruled out owing to his injury in the first match against Punjab. David Miller will be available for selection after completing the quarantine.
Alongside, previous season’s runners-up Delhi will be keen to continue their winning streak, which may prove strenuous with their bowling department missing Anrich Nortje due to coronavirus. However, his compatriot Kagiso Rabad will be available for selection.
Predicted Playing XI
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant (C and WK), Marcus  Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Chris Woakes, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan
Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Manan Vohra, Sanju Samson (C and WK), Liam Livingstone, Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shreyas Gopal, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman
Key Battles to Watch Out
It will be interesting to see how Sanju Samson deals with leg spinner Amit Mishra as Samson struggled to play the spinners in the first game. The young batsman from Kerala looked much more fluent with his strokeplay against pacers once he got past 50.
Meanwhile, Sakariya was able to swing the ball in his debut game for RR, so it will be a great clash between him and Shikhar Dhawan. The experienced opening batsman has often struggled when the ball is swinging in the powerplay. Sakariya will be looking to capitalise on this aspect of Dhawan’s game, but the Southpaw is in good form after scoring 85 runs in the opening game.