Transfers made – 1; Transfers remaining – 41
AB de Villiers out – Quinton de Kock in
(uncapped) Yuzvendra Chahal out – Shivil Kaushik in
Batting captain – Quinton de Kock
Bowling captain – Chris Morris
Add-on sub – Dwayne Smith
Batting captaincy options – Quinton de Kock, Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina
Delhi are easily the strategically best team in IPL. They were very unlucky to not get both the Gujarat Lions’ openers cheaply last game – had set specific fields and bowled in a way to exploit their weakness, only for their fielders to shell the chances.
Probably their only mistake was not bringing in leg-spin earlier into the attack. It was, in a way, understandable, given how leg-spinners struggle within powerplay restrictions; although considering how soon the match was being taken away from them, the gamble would have been worth it.
Picking McCullum today depends on whether or not Delhi play both their leg-spinners in Amit Mishra and Imran Tahir. If the duo plays, it’s only a matter of time before he gets out to them, as we have seen all through IPL. Even Delhi bringing in a left-arm spinner could do the job.
Smith, on the other hand, needs to deal with Zaheer’s swing, Morris's pace and then the leg-spinners as well; since his next game is against Sunrisers, against whom he will definitely be sorted out, I am keeping him out as well.
Given how big a lottery Raina is, De Kock could turn out to be a calculated gamble – gives me 2 in 3, opens the innings and faces favourable bowling attacks in his next 2 games. That the Gujarat Lions have two left-arm spinners today can only make his task easier. Their only other option is Pravin Tambe who spins the ball in as well.
Bowling captaincy options – Chris Morris and Dwayne Bravo
The teams’ go-to bowlers. I only have Morris, which makes it obvious – also helps that he will be bowling to an out of form middle order. Leaving Bravo out could hurt you any day; irrespective of how bad he is bowling, if you bowl at the death, you get wickets.
But considering I wouldn’t captain him for the next two matches, I can take a hit of 200 points combined, which is the maximum I see him giving me on what are going to be good batting wickets
Nature of the deck – Flat
Uncapped picks – Karun Nair (if he bats at 3), Shivil Kaushik, Pravin Tambe, Mayank Agarwal and Rishabh Pant
Gujarat Lions – Fantasy clinchers
My reports suggest that Aaron Finch is likely to come back in place of James Faulkner, but there is no way they can fit him into this playing XI and make all their three overseas batsmen play to their potential, with 2 of the 3 being weak against spin and the other against pace and leg-spin.
My guess is Smith moves back to the middle order, a role he was assigned to play in his Lions’ debut match before Finch’s injury changed everything.
Delhi Daredevils – Fantasy clinchers
The Daredevils brought in Carlos Brathwaite for Imran Tahir last game keeping in mind the flat nature of the Delhi deck. With another such pitch to play on today, I think they will stick with the West Indian big-hitter. JP Duminy seems to have not completely recovered yet, and given how well Sam Billings played, they might not want to rush him.
The playing XI looked almost perfect except for one issue – they had only 5 bowlers, with one of them being Brathwaite. And against a team that boasts of the likes of Smith, McCullum and Finch, they might want to have an extra bowler, preferably an Indian spinner – which could see Shahbaz Nadeem or Pawan Negi coming in for Shreyas Iyer.
Sanju Samson could be back opening the innings, with Pant in the middle order to mess up Raina’s plans of bowling his SLA spin duo in tandem.
Match call – With an extra spinner in the playing XI, Delhi Daredevils should win it.
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