In a thrilling encounter at the IPL 2025, Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel emerged victorious at the toss and elected to bowl first against Royal Challengers Bangalore at their home ground in New Delhi on Thursday. The Capitals, boasting an unbeaten run with three consecutive wins, are comfortably positioned at the second spot in the tournament’s standings, while RCB, with a record of three wins and a single loss, closely trail behind at third place.
Maintaining their winning momentum, Delhi Capitals introduced a strategic tweak in their lineup, with Faf du Plessis replacing Samir Rizvi. Post-toss, Captain Patel addressed the media, confirming his decision to bowl first and provided an intriguing update on teammate KL Rahul‘s role, stating, ‘We will bowl first. My fingers are fine, protecting it, but if needed, I will bowl all four overs. Faf is fit, he’s in and Rizzie is out. We’ve decided on our order and KL will bat in the middle-order.’
Discussing the team’s bowling strategy, Patel emphasized a balanced approach, ‘Spinners will have a role here, but the fast bowlers can also take wickets. They’ll have to play the roles they’ve been selected to do; we’ve two good leg-spinners, they’re our attacking options, we have defending options as well, so we’ll have to play according to whatever the match situation demands.’
On the other side, RCB’s stand-in captain Rajat Patidar, filling in for the injured Faf, shared that while they would have preferred to chase, they were ready to adapt to the conditions. ‘We would have loved to chase, but the surface looks hard, we’ll look to put up a good total and defend it,’ Patidar stated, expressing confidence in their strategy and unchanged lineup.
The line-ups for the crucial match were as follows:
RCB: Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal.
DC: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, KL Rahul (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Axar Patel (c), Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar.
As the IPL 2025 progresses, fans and analysts alike are keenly watching how strategic decisions like KL Rahul’s new middle-order stint and Axar Patel’s bowling strategy will influence the outcome of this high-stakes encounter between RCB and DC.