IPL 2019 – Match 3: Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals – DC Predicted Playing XI

The rechristened Delhi Capitals (DC) will hope for a change of fortunes with a change in name and the jersey. The team’s performance over the last few years has been miserable. However, they enter into this season amidst a lot of hopes. They have assembled a young side with a lot of good Indian players in the mix.

Just like last year, they look quite strong on paper. And, the cheerful news for them is that they will face the Mumbai Indians in their first game. Irrespective of how they fared in the last few years, they have always performed well against MI. Last year, they managed to win both the games against this opposition. Hence, they will be quite positive and will be fancying a win in their first match.

Here is the Predicted Playing XI for Delhi Capitals (DC):

Openers (Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw)

Delhi have been able to trade Shikhar Dhawan from the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Thus, it gives them a solid Indian opener at the top of the order. It will be home-coming for Dhawan as he will be back with his first franchise after a long time. The left-hander likes to bat at the Wankhede and will have a huge role to play for the team this season.

A young Prithvi Shaw will be Shikhar’s opening partner. Shaw hasn’t played much cricket of late due to the ankle injury. But he is now fit and fine heading into this season of the IPL. Unlike last year, he could well be playing all the matches this year. He is highly talented and will give Dhawan some time to settle in as he plays aggressive cricket.

Middle Order (Colin Ingram, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk))

Colin Ingram is almost a legend in the T20 League circuit. He has been scoring runs heavily all over and could make it to the eleven straightaway. This will mean that Colin Munro has to benched. Munro hasn’t been in the best of forms in the last few months and they could possibly try him in the later stages of the tournament.

Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant will be batting at four and five respectively. Both these youngsters are highly talented and can turn the game upside down. However, both of them are under pressure playing this tournament as they will fancy their chances of making it to the World Cup squad. This pressure might bring out the best in them or lead to a miserable tournament.

All Rounders (Axar Patel, Harshal Patel)

Axar Patel has been in good batting form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. DC can trust him to bat at number six at least for the first two games to see how he goes. With the ball, he can offer the team four highly economical overs. If required, he can also open the bowling.

Harshal Patel played an important role with the bat last season. He is temperamentally strong with the bat and is capable of clearing the fence. As they do not have many other options, DC will have to keep faith in him. He can bowl a few overs in the middle if required.

Bowlers (Amit Mishra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Trent Boult, Kagiso Rabada)

The DC bowling line-up looks excellent. They have got the likes of Amit Mishra and Sandeep Lamichhane in their spin department. Both these players are fabulous exponents in the shortest format of the game. They offer you wickets at regular intervals and also stop the run flow in the middle overs.

To support the spinners, DC has got two of the best pacers in the world. Trent Boult had his best IPL season thus far when he played last year. He will be available for the entire duration of the tournament and will hope to yield better results this time. He will have Kagiso Rabada at the other end who bowls quick and has got quite a few variations. These two can be highly effective at the death.

Here is the Delhi Capitals squad for IPL 2019:

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from the Indian Premier League (IPL), Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.