All eyes will be on KL Rahul as he gears up to lead the struggling Lucknow Super Giants in their desperate bid to reach the IPL playoffs when they take on an equally inconsistent Delhi Capitals in a must-win game at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in the national capital on Tuesday.
Rahul’s future as LSG skipper has been widely speculated after his public reprimand by team owner Sanjiv Goenka following their 10-wicket humiliation at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad last week. There have been speculations that the wicketkeeper-batter might step down or perhaps continue in the role for the remainder of this season before leaving the franchise
Irrespective of all such unconfirmed speculations, one thing is clear and that the Karnataka batter would be keen on answering his naysayers and finishing on a high. For that, Rahul will be hoping for an improved show with the bat, as his inconsistent form has left LSG at the seventh spot with 12 points with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and DC, who are fifth and sixth, respectively.
Rahul & Co must have utilised the five-day gap to analyse on the team’s shortcomings this season, as they are left in a dire must-win situation, and thus will be expected to come out firing all cylinders on Wednesday.
Besides Rahul, his opening partner Quinton De Kock’s poor form this season has also hampered LSG’s cause, especially in the powerplay, which has resulted in undue pressure on the middle order, comprising the likes of Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda and Nicholas Pooran.
Although Pooran and Ayush Badoni managed to rescue the team in their previous match, the bowlers failed miserably against the formidable Sunrisers Hyderabad opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who chased down 167 in 9.4 overs, a T20I record by any team.
In the bowling front, the loss of rookie quick Mayank Yadav to injury has also cost the franchise dear, as the rest of the pace-bowling unit, comprising Yash Thakur and Naveen-ul-Haq haven’t been at their consistent best. Also Mohsin Khan picked up an injury at the wrong time. The spin duo of Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi will also hope to bounce back from the clobbering by the SRH openers.
On the other hand, DC, who are also on 12 points and are coming into the match after a loss against RCB on Sunday night, will hope for a last-ditched attempt to stay alive. The Capitals will hope that the return of skipper Rishabh Pant after a one-match ban due to slow overrate against Rajasthan Royals will help them get their form back.
In the absence of Pant, Delhi’s batting once again flopped on Sunday, as they lost four wickets inside four overs to be bowled out for their lowest innings score this IPL. Not only their batting, it was a collective failure from the Capitals as fielding lapses cost them two dropped catches, while their bowlers also failed to contain the flow of runs despite initially dominating the proceedings.
With less than 48 hours turnaround time, the team management must have taken note of their shortcomings, and expect the team to start afresh at their home ground. The batting has mainly revolved around young Jack Fraser-McGurk, with 330 runs from seven matches at an impressive strike-rate of 237.41, while Abhishek Porel (269, 156.39), Pant (413, 156.43) and Tristan Stubbs (321, 185.54) too have been among runs this season.
Coming to their bowling department, the onus will once again be on the spin twin — Kuldeep Yadav (15) and Axar Patel (10), who have shared 25 wickets, to lead the pack. The pace unit, comprising the likes of Khaleel Ahmed (16 wickets) and Mukesh Kumar (16) too have got them the breakthroughs and once again will be expected to do the damage up front and at the death.