IPL 2025: KL Rahul’s return could be the game-changer for Delhi Capitals

Dubai: As Sunrisers Hyderabad struggle to recover from a brutal defeat, Delhi Capitals are poised for a major boost with the return of KL Rahul. Can the star batter turn the tide in their favour as the Capitals aim to maintain momentum in their second home?

Rahul, who missed the previous match to be with his Bollywood actress wife, Athiya Shetty, for the birth of their daughter, rejoins a Delhi side riding high on confidence. Despite his absence, the Capitals pulled off a thrilling chase against Lucknow Super Giants, thanks to a stunning late assault from Ashutosh Sharma and debutant Vipraj Nigam. Now, with their captain back, Delhi will look to extend their winning momentum in their final game at their second home in Visakhapatnam.

“For starters, KL Rahul has returned for this match. Our team will have a lot more balance with him back. And you cannot judge a team by just one game — all our players are very good and experienced, so hopefully, there’s a good match ahead,” said Nigam during the pre-match press conference on Saturday.

Nigam, whose confidence has been boosted by his performance in the opening game, stressed that there was no added pressure on him. “If you do well in your first match, help your team win, you feel very confident. Hopefully, I’ll keep doing the same for my team in the future,” he added.

Reflecting on his partnership with Ashutosh, Nigam said their experience batting together in practice matches helped them remain calm under pressure. “We batted a lot together in practice games. In the match, there was so much pressure, but our approach was simple: ‘We’ll do the same things we did in practice, and hopefully, the result will be the same.’”

When asked about their bowling unit, which had conceded over 200 runs against Lucknow Super Giants, Nigam said they would stick to the plans developed in team meetings. “SRH is a very strong team with a great batting line-up. But we’ll follow the bowling plans we’ve discussed in team meetings and practice sessions,” he said.

Hyderabad, on the other hand, will be wary as they head into the match after their batting line-up was exposed by a clinical Lucknow bowling attack. Sunrisers rely heavily on their top four, and a couple of early wickets can push them into deep trouble. Another major concern for SRH will be their bowling. Despite having talents like captain Pat Cummins, Mohammed Shami, and Adam Zampa, they have conceded over 200 runs in both their games so far. This puts additional pressure on the batting unit to score over 250 to secure a win.

In their first away match, SRH will be desperate to get back to winning ways. They will rely on their top-order batters — Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Nitish Kumar Reddy — to fire and put Delhi Capitals under pressure.

But with Rahul’s return and Delhi’s newfound finishing firepower, the Capitals won’t be easy to crack. If Sunrisers can’t tighten their bowling, they might find themselves chasing shadows once again.

Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel (wk), Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (captain), KL Rahul, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar. Impact sub options: Karun Nair, Ashutosh Sharma, Donovan Ferreira, Tripurana Vijay, Darshan Nalkand.

Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (captain), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Sachin Baby, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Adam Zampa and Wiaan Mulder.

Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium

2pm UAE

— With inputs from IANS