For Delhi Daredevils, it’s a feeling of déjà vu. Here they are again, at the bottom of the league table, looking destined to stay there for the rest of the Indian Premier League 2018.
It does look like the experiment of bringing Gautam Gambhir back home has not really worked so far, Gambhir has been very poor in this edition of the IPL. He looks like a player who is well past his prime and we won’t be surprised to see him quit cricket at the end of this tournament.
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Daredevils need a win badly, but they are not likely to get it in the game against the best team in the IPL 2018 so far, Kings XI Punjab. This is a smashing team led from the front by Chris Gayle and KL Rahul.
Chris Gayle and KL Rahul are the most threatening opening pair in T20 cricket right now and they can destroy any bowling attack. They have destroyed the very best teams like Sunrisers Hyderabad and KKR, and we don’t expect them to show any mercy whatsoever to the much weaker Daredevils team.
Apart from the duo on top, Kings XI have a great support cast in Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Aaron Finch. There is Yuvraj Singh as well, but like Gambhir, he is way past his prime.
They have been led brilliant by Ashwin and have done very well under the guidance of Virender Sehwag, the mentor. Indeed this is a team that plays just like Sehwag – every Indian’s favorite batsman – used to. See the ball, smash the ball, as simple as that!
Things couldn’t have been worse than it is at this point for Daredevils, but they shouldn’t do anything silly as yet. They still have decent players in Jason Roy, Rishabh Pant, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Morris and Trent Boult. They just need to get it all together on the day of the match.
Prediction: Kings XI to win, Gayle may have an off day though. He is certainly entitled to one!
The Teams
Delhi Daredevils: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Shahbaz Nadeem/Jayant Yadav, 10 Harshal Patel, 11 Trent Boult
Kings XI Punjab: 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Aaron Finch, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Mujeeb ur Rahman, 9 Andrew Tye, 10 Barinder Sran, 11 Mohit Sharma/Ankit Rajpoot
Watch Delhi Daredevils play Kings XI Punjab tonight at 8 pm Live on Star Sports!
