At Mumbai, hosts Mumbai Indians will play Delhi Capitals tomorrow (8 pm). Delhi hadn’t made it to the playoffs since 2012 and finished last season at the bottom of the table with 10 points in 14 games. They have now been renamed Delhi Capitals and their jersey colour has changed. With a new avatar, the team will be hoping for a change in fortunes as well.
Having bought Shikar Dhawan, Delhi seems to have strengthened his batting now. There is Prithvi Shaw and Colin Munro besides Glenn Maxwell. Skipper Shreyas Iyer and the explosive Rishabh Pant can add more value to the team. Their bowling department looks settled with the likes of veteran Ishant Sharma and South Africa pacer Kagiso Rabada opening the spell.
In spin department, they have Nepalese sensation Sandeep Lamichhane, apart from Axar Patel and uncapped talents Rahul Tewatia and Jalaj Saxena. Two-time World Cup-winning Australia captain Ricky Ponting is coach and Sourav Ganguly is the team advisor.
Mumbai meanwhile looks a settled team. Their biggest strength is all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya besides Ben Cutting and Keiron Pollard. They can also bat big. Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Evin Lewis and Quinton de Kock are expected to accelerate their scoring any moment.
Rohit Sharma is going to be the player around which the whole team would revolve. They have Yuvraj Singh in the squad. One has to see how they use him in the squad.