Bombay: Yuzvendra Chahal’s bag of tricks will find its perfect match in Kuldeep Yadav’s trickery as the two wrist spinners are expected to dictate the story when Rajasthan Royals collide with Capitals Of Delhi in an IPL match, on Friday.
With current ‘Orange Cap’ holder Jos Buttler (375 runs) and ‘Purple Cap’ holder Chahal (17 wickets) in their ranks, Royals are a team that looks quite formidable at the moment, even with a dysfunctional middle order except Shimron Hetmyer.
On the other hand, the resurgent Capitals are battling the pain of a mini-COVID-19 outbreak in the camp, but they are still trying their best to stay afloat.
Against this backdrop, the two wrist spinners, who currently dominate the bowling cards, will be itching to show their wares with Kuldeep (13 wickets at number 2) expected to ask some questions for in-form Buttler in case there are any. a match is -up.
For Delhi, Kuldeep along with Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav would like to stop the run flow, but stopping Buttler will be at the top of their agenda at a Wankhede track that is expected to be good for hitting.
For Chahal, how he varies the pace against a raging David Warner or the ever attacking Prithvi Shaw and skipper Rishabh Pant will delight the fans.
In the past five years, life has come full circle for ‘Kul-Cha’, which was the ‘flavor’ of the nation between 2017 and 2019, when wrist spinners were in vogue during the Ravi Shastri-Virat Kohli era.
While Chahal was dealt a blow after being dropped from the final T20 World Cup squad and sporadically picked in white ball formats, Kuldeep also lost the way.
He received very little support from the former national team management or his previous IPL team (KKR) and also suffered a career-threatening knee injury.
But now the smile is back and so is the deceit. The googly of the left arm — the one that turns away from the right-hander — is back and so is the conventional left arm fracture that comes in the right-hander.
However, in these types of games, the supporting cast becomes more important because they can create those little game-changing moments that affect the final outcome of the game.
Mustafizur Rahaman’s cutters and Khaleel Ahmed’s clever change of pace could also get the likes of Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag in trouble.
Likewise, if Trent Boult gets one in the first place, Shaw’s reaction and technique will be seriously tested.
But the Royals now have a calm death bowler in Obed McCoy from the West Indies who was brilliant bowling the final against KKR.
McCoy, who made his IPL debut in the last game, is tall and seemed to use his height well to create awkward angles and length for the Delhi batters.
If mid-range failure is a problem for Royals, the DC doesn’t seem to have found the second Indian batter in that mid-range, aside from skipper Pant, who can tear the bowling apart.
Mandeep Singh was a huge failure against really fast bowling, but Sarfaraz Khan is trying to play in himself.
Rovman Powell has so far failed to show his destructive self and these are the players who have to push their limits when it comes to maintaining momentum.
Teams (of):
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Shubham Garwal, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldip Yadav, Kuldeep Sen, Tejas Baroka, Anunay Singh, KC Kariappa, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Rassie Van der Dussen, Nathan Coulter Nile, Jimmy Mitchell Neesham , Karun Nair, Obed McCoy, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (Captain), Ashwin Hebbar, David Warner, Mandeep Singh, Prithvi Shaw, Rovman Powell, Anrich Nortje, Chetan Sakariya, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav, Lungi Ngidi, Mustafizur Rahman, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Kamlesh Nagarkoti , , Lalit Yadav, Mitchell Marsh, Pravin Dubey, Ripal Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Vicky Ostwal, Yash Dhull and KS Bharat.
Match starts at 7:30 PM.
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