The Delhi Daredevils have been in complete disarray since their last game against Kings XI Punjab. Things were already reaching a boiling point but losing a winnable game against Kings XI when they were unable to chase a smallish target was the final straw.
Gautam Gambhir, who has been a shadow of his former self, has decided to take himself out of contention and resign from captaincy of the Daredevils team. He will be succeeded by Shreyas Iyer, all of 23 years of age.
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Gambhir has always been a team man and having seen that he wasn’t contributing to the team and was holding them back, decided to fall on his own sword. Gambhir well stay on as a player-mentor, which is a perfect role for him as young players look up to him.
Gambhir reassured the Daredevils fans, We have eight games in hand. There are lots of us who believe.”
The last time the Delhi Daredevils played Kolkata Knight Riders, they managed to keep Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn quiet. What they could not have planned for was the brutal assault from Andre Russell, who smashed an incredible 12-ball 41. From that point onwards, Daredevils were nowhere in the game.
Gambhir will be replaced by the hard hitting New Zealander Colin Munro if Jason Roy is not fit. The other opening batsman, young Prithvi Shaw impressed, smashing 21 off just 9 balls in his first outing in the IPL. Daredevils will want him to stay at the crease longer and make more runs, at the same strike rate.
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Chris Morris has a back injury, but may have recovered in time for tonight’s game. He is a very important player for Daredevils as he can bat well in the lower order and bowl fast as well.
For KKR, they are doing well so far but they depend a lot on Andre Russell, the best T20 player in the world. Russell has a serious recurring hamstring injury which affects his bowling. KKR may decided to play him only as a batsman. We will see!
Prediction – KKR should win this game comfortably. Most people would be surprised if the Daredevils pull this off. But you never know with youngsters such as Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Prithvi Shaw – on their day, they can destroy any bowling attack.
The Teams
Delhi Daredevils: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Colin Munro/Jason Roy, 3 Glenn Maxwell, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Liam Plunkett, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Trent Boult.
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Shubman Gill, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Shivam Mavi, 11 Kuldeep Yadav.
Watch Delhi Daredevils play Kolkata Knight Riders tonight at 8 pm live on Star Sports!
