The razzmatazz of cricket, the Indian Premier League (IPL), will kick off on March 28 with the match between defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
However, our concern is not that. We are rather looking at Delhi Capitals’ schedule here. It may be noted that the entire schedule hasn’t been released because the IPL is waiting for the Election Commission to announce the dates for Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Assam. Those who have been following the league would know very well that these elections-related matters have often affected the league in one way or the other.
Anyway, a 16-day schedule is out as of now, and during this period Delhi Capitals will play four matches. The Axar Patel-led team will travel to Lucknow Supergiants for their opening match on April 1. After that, they will host five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Then they will host Gujarat Titans on April 8. In their final match of the duration, on April 11, they will travel to meet another IPL powerhouse and five-time champions Chennai Super Kings at the Chidambaram Stadium.
The franchise, previously known as Delhi Daredevils, is now one of two old teams in the IPL that has not won the league. Until last season, they also had RCB in their company but this time around they find themselves only with the Punjab franchise, which means they will be under tremendous pressure to deliver the goods.
The Delhi franchise has reached the final just once, in 2020, where they were beaten by Mumbai Indians. In 2008 and 2009, they reached the semis. That was the golden phase for them, to all intents and purposes. The league introduced the play-offs format in 2011 and four times Delhi have been in the play-offs, in 2012, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Four times they have finished bottom of the league in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2018. Last year, they finished fifth. This season, they have brought in players like David Miller, J&K’s up-and-coming pacer Auqib Nabi, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Ben Duckett and Kyle Jamieson, and they will hope they can stage some kind of turnaround for themselves. Frankly speaking, only winning the league will be considered success for them.
Squad:
KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Abhishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Axa Patel, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Auqib Nabi, Ben Duckett, David Miller, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parakh, Prithvi Shah, Kyle Jamieson, Nitish Rana, Mitchell Starc, Kudeep Yadav
Delhi Capitals’ schedule so far
April 01, Lucknow Supergiants vs Delhi Capitals at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium
April 04, Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians at Arun Jaitley Stadium
April 08, Delhi Capitals vs Gujarat Titans at Arun Jaitley Stadium
April 11, Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Capitals at MA Chidambaram Stadium
