Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants will be entering a new leadership phase when they square off against each other in their first match of IPL 2025 on Monday in Visakhapatnam. Delhi Capitals will be led by all-rounder Axar Patel while LSG will be playing under Rishabh Pant, who captained the Delhi-based franchise in 2024. During the mega auctions, LSG let go off their regular skipper KL Rahul and roped in wicketkeeper Pant at a record-breaking price of Rs 27 crore. On the other hand, Rahul joined Delhi for Rs 14 crore.
Ahead of the campaign opener, DC skipper Axar informed that Rahul is unlikely to play to first match as he is awaiting the birth of his first child with his wife and Bollywood actress Athiya Shetty.
LSG suffered a big blow as their pacer Mohsin Khan got ruled out due to an injury. All-rounder Shardul Thakur was named as his replacement. Apart from this, LSG will also be missing the services of their Indian fast bowlers -- Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan and Akash Deep, who are undergoing rehab for injuries.
LSG will be hopeful that their rich bank of Indian players mix up well with the overseas players to put together a string of wins. While Mitchell Marsh is available only as a specialist batter, LSG will hope for rich returns from the South African pair of David Miller and Aiden Markram.
In Nicholas Pooran, LSG have a perfect aggressive batter who can build innings as well as anchor chases, while Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad and Shahbaz Ahmed could be the other Indian batters.
DC, on the other hand, were spoilt for choices when it came to picking their captain as they also have Faf du Plessis apart from KL Rahul but the franchise opted for all-round Axar Patel, whose career graph has been on a rise.
Overall, on-paper, the Capitals come across as a formidable unit for the rich mix of overseas and Indian players, while LSG have only six overseas players in their roster to work with.
Along with the vast experience of du Plessis in the batting line-up, Delhi Capitals also have Australian speedster Mitchell Starc who is coming into this IPL fresh off a break which saw him missing the Champions Trophy.
DC's Predicted XI vs LSG: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), Karun Nair, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan
Impact player: Mohit Sharma
LSG's Predicted XI vs DC: Arshin Kulkarni, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c/wk), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph
Impact player: Akash Singh/Shahbaz Ahmed
(With PTI Inputs)