Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel missed out on the match against Punjab Kings in the ongoing IPL 2025 due to illness. Meanwhile, Sediquallah Atal made his debut for Delhi and Punjab made two changes to their playing XI.
Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel missed the previous game against Mumbai Indians and the all-rounder will miss the final league game against Punjab Kings as well. In his absence, Faf du Plessis has been leading the side, and in the previous match, the former South Africa international mentioned that Axar has been ill and that ruled him out of the match against Punjab at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
In his absence, Delhi added an additional batter in the playing XI. Karun Nair made his return to the playing XI while the Afghanistan international Sediqulluah Atal has been handed his debut. The youngster replaced Abishek Porel in the playing XI. Karun, on the other hand, started the season in a brilliant fashion but has failed to live up to expectations in recent times. However, given his brilliant performance in domestic cricket, Karun has been called up to India squad for the upcoming England series.
Delhi, in the meantime, won the toss and elected to bowl first against Punjab. After the toss, Faf explained that the team wants to finish the tournament on a high note and noted that they played well against Mumbai in the last match but lost focus in the end.
“We will have a bowl. I think today it is 50-50. Just the make up of the side. We are playing an extra batter. It helps while chasing. It has been very frustrating. We started well. Then went on a roller coaster. We have played enough T20 cricket to understand. We played well in the last game for the first 17 overs. Then lost focus. We are playing for the fifth spot. We had our goals to get into top four,” Faf said after the toss.
Teams:
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Faf du Plessis (c), Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs (wk), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mustafizur Rahman, Mukesh Kumar
