IPL 2021, Preview: Delhi Capitals Take On Buoyant Knight Riders

Delhi Capitals (DC), whose form has tapered off a bit in recent times, will take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.

DC lost their previous match to Royal Challengers Bangalore by just one run on Tuesday night and they barely managed to beat SunRisers Hyderabad in the Super Over on Sunday night.

The Kolkata franchise, which has been inconsistent throughout the tournament, managed to return to winning ways beating Punjab Kings by five wickets. Prior to that, KKR had lost four matches in a row.

So far, KKR has won just two out of six matches. Unlike them, DC has won four out of six matches in the IPL so far. DC's strength is batting and not just bowling. Even as Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, and Steve Smith failed to get going in the last match against RCB, middle-order batsman Shimron Hetmyer showed that one can never write off DC.

Skipper Rishabh Pant too appears to be in the form as he scored an unbeaten fifty in the last match. For KKR, the good news is that their skipper Eoin Morgan is back in form. He scored an unbeaten 47 to see the team through to victory in the last match.

Their bowling too looks well-rounded. Young Shivam Mavi was brilliant and miserly in his bowling while Prasidh Krishna too delivered.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert (wicketkeeper), Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Eoin Morgan (captain), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun CV, Kuldeep Yadav, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Karun Nair, Harbhajan Singh, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer, Pawan Negi.

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (captain/wicketkeeper), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Sam Billings, Shimron Hetmyer, Ishant Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Umesh Yadav, Tom Curran, Avesh Khan, Lalit Yadav, Pravin Dubey, Ripal Patel, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Chris Woakes, Vishnu Vinod (wicketkeeper), Aditya Tare (wicketkeeper).