The caravan of the 2023 Indian Premier League is left with only three teams who are yet to find their maiden breakthrough in Season 16. Two of them will be squaring off against each other this Tuesday as there are high chances that one of them will taste the first win of the season.
Mumbai Indians will be locking horns with the old foes Delhi Capitals in Match No. 16 at Arun Jaitley Stadium of the National Capital.
Delhi team management is expected to make some major changes and take harsh decisions on underperforming players in order to find the success path.
Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey who both were dismissed on duck within the first over of the Rajasthan game may not be seen in the playing XI for a while. Lalit Yadav will retain his place in the Capitals’ lineup while the local lad Yash Dhull may also get the nod after waiting for his turn for a long time.
The recent defeat at the hands of CSK will have huge consequences for the MI roster as the gaffer Mark Boucher may propose the exclusion of the young lads Arshad Khan and Hrithik Shokeen.
Meanwhile, the inclusion of Tristan Stubbs ahead of Dewald Brevis also brought plenty of criticism to the captain-coach duo as the move miserably backfired. The Madhya Pradesh mystery man Kumar Kartikeya is likely to replace Arshad Khan after delivering an impressive performance as an impact player with his bowling figures of 1/24 in four overs.
What have they done so far?
As usual, Mumbai Indians have once again kick-started their IPL campaign with a defeat after losing the clash with rivals Royal Challengers Bangalore in a one-sided saga.
Skipper Rohit wanted to turn the tables around in the following game against rivals Chennai Super Kings however the outcome remained the same. The MI Paltan failed to defend a total of 158 against the CSK batting unit and eventually lost the El Clasico encounter by 7 wickets.
Meanwhile, the story of Delhi Capitals is also not much different from their traditional rivals as they have suffered three consecutive losses to commence Mission 2023.
The Blue and Reds are struggling to cope with the transitional phase as the newly appointed captain David Warner is unable to replicate the aura of Rishabh Pant. Early crisis and incapability to accelerate during the middle overs cost them big chunks as they fell short of Rajasthan’s target of 200 by 57 runs in the most recent appearance.
Head to Head record
When DC’s brilliance could not dethrone the excellence of an Invincible MI Paltan
The national and financial capital cities of the country have been indulged in a fierce rivalry at the world’s grandest stage of T20 right from the inaugural edition. The most decorated IPL franchise is leading the head-to-head record with 17 victories while their counterparts are also not much far behind with 15 wins from 32 encounters.
When Delhi was rising through the ranks of IPL between 2019-2021, it was the MI Paltan who kept them away from glory despite having the finest run in the league. The Capitals’ best-ever campaign was in the year 2020 when they finished as the runners-up after losing all four face-offs with Mumbai including two playoff battles.
Both of these combatants initiated their IPL 2022 run by facing each other in the opening fixture where Delhi Capitals registered a four-wicket triumph in a nail-biting contest at Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai avenged the earlier defeat later on when they outclassed the Capitals in their final league fixture which eventually eliminated the Blue and Reds from the playoff race.
Key Players
Ishan Kishan: The Patna-born talismanic wicket-keeper has been underperforming ever since getting a whopping auction price of 15.25 crores. He fetched 129 runs from two innings against the same opposition in the previous season with his solid knocks of 81* and 48 on the Mumbai pitch. MI’s batting lineup heavily depends on the left-handed opener for good starts however, Ishan has not lived up to the expectations yet.
David Warner: Delhi’s 36-year-old skipper is the player from the roster who has been consistent with his performance this season. Warner is sitting on the second position in individual run-scoring charts having scalped 158 runs from three innings at an astonishing average of 52.67. However, the veteran Aussie opener has received criticism for not scoring those runs at a quick pace as he will be looking forward to improving his strike rate of 117.
Predicted Playing XI
Delhi Capitals: David Warner ©, Yash Dhull, Rilee Rossouw, Lalit Yadav, Rovman Powell, Axar Patel, Abishek Porel (wk), Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma ©, Ishan Kishan (wk), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Tim David, Hrithik Shokeen, Jofra Archer, Kumar Karthkeya, Piyush Chawla, Jason Behrendorff
Prediction
The kind of form both of these franchises are having, it is quite difficult to predict the winning side from this encounter due to current circumstances. The MI Paltan has a better head-to-head record against the Capital-based but their failure to establish an adequate team combination has minified it.
On the other hand, the Capitals seemed relatively more stable than MI while the advantage of playing in home conditions also brightens their chances to win this contest.