Big picture - Rahul, Pant, and points to prove
The IPL has always had players facing their former teams, but this season, there's added spice to these contests.
KL Rahul, former Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain, will play for Delhi Capitals (DC), while Rishabh Pant faces his old franchise DC after becoming IPL's costliest auction signing. What's more, they start their season against each other. In Visakhapatnam, DC's second home, on Monday evening.
The last images from Rahul's time with LSG were of what looked like an animated discussion with team owner Sanjiv Goenka after the team's exit from IPL 2024. Afterwards, Goenka expressed a desire to have "players with a mindset to win" and Rahul wanted to feel "loved and cared for".
On Monday, Rahul could possibly start - we don't know yet if he may have to fly home for personal reasons. When he does, he'll have started without the captaincy mantle that is with Axar Patel - after Pant's "devastating" exit.
Meanwhile, Pant will lead LSG at a venue where he received a hero's welcome last year after he returned to action from a career-threatening accident. But this game is more than about Rahul and Pant.
It pits two teams eager to carve a new identity after squad revamps, and, in DC's case, support staff overhaul. LSG faces challenges with with all their main Indian quicks injured or in rehab or, in Mohsin Khan's case, ruled out. DC have strengthened their attack with Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma and T Natarajan, while Mukesh Kumar, Axar and Kuldeep Yadav are still there.
Looking at that, this could well be a contest between LSG's batting and DC's bowling.
New loyalties
Pant has played all 111 of his IPL games for DC after starting in 2016, and on Monday, he will face them for the first time. Rahul, who led LSG to back-to-back playoffs, now has a chance to make a statement with the bat, continuing the aggressive brand of cricket he played in India's Champions Trophy glory run.
Mitchell Marsh had a productive IPL 2022 for DC - hitting 251 runs with a best of 89. In IPL 2023, he picked up 12 wickets at 14.16. Now, he joins LSG as a batter because of recurrent injuries.
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Team news and likely XIIs
Rahul joined the team on match eve in Visakhapatnam, but may or may not be available for the game for personal reasons. If he can't be around, DC have a replacement in Karun Nair, who is coming off a prolific domestic white-ball season. Jake Fraser-McGurk, a star in IPL 2024, has endured a lean run in T20s since - he tallied just 188 runs in ten BBL innings for Melbourne Renegades, with 95 of them in one innings.
Delhi Capitals (probable): 1 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Abishek Porel, 4 KL Rahul (wk), 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Axar Patel (capt), 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Sameer Rizvi/Mohit Sharma, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 T Natarajan, 12 Mukesh Kumar
LSG have brought on board Shardul Thakur as injury replacement for Mohsin, but there are other big gaps: Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan and Akash Deep - the heart of their Indian fast-bowling core - are all recovering from injuries.
Lucknow Super Giants (probable): 1 Yuvraj Chaudhary, 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 4 Nicholas Pooran, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 David Miller, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Shahbaz Ahmed, 9 Rajvardhan Hangargekar, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Shamar Joseph, 12 Prince Yadav
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The big question
Where should Pant bat?
Data backs the theory that he could be unleashed to open thanks to the presence of two spin-bashers in Nicholas Pooran and David Miller lower down. Among 29 batters to have scored 400 or more runs against spinners in the middle overs since IPL 2019, Pooran's strike rate of 154.31 is the best. Miller, meanwhile, strikes at 135.38, nearly ten runs more than Pant.
In the spotlight: Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur
Axar Patel will be a full-time IPL captain for the first time. One of DC's four retentions, Axar has been key to India's triumph at both the T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy by giving the team management batting flexibility, apart from reliability with the ball. Axar has previously led his state team Gujarat in 23 matches across formats, most recently in the domestic white-ball competitions, but IPL will be a different challenge.
After initially going unsold, Shardul Thakur's strong performances with bat and ball for Mumbai in the domestic circuit have earned him a late opportunity with LSG. His county stint with Essex, which could have boosted his national selection chances for the England tour, is now off, and this is another chance for Thakur to prove his all-round value to remain in national contention.
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Key stats
LSG's win percentage of 73 batting first is the highest among all teams since IPL 2022.
DC's quick bowling pack had the poorest economy rate (10.7) among all the teams in IPL 2024, so there will be a lot of expectations on the revamped line-up.
Rahul's 3958 runs are the mostby any batter in the IPL since 2018.
Pooran is the most prolific six-hitter in T20s since 2024, with 187 sixes. Heinrich Klaasen comes a distant second with 117.
Pitch and conditions
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) shellacked 272 here last year, an IPL record at the time. In 19 games at the Andhra Premier League in August, 200 was crossed just once. But that shouldn't be the barometer to gauge the surface, for the quality of players is vastly different. In all T20s in Visakhapatnam, runs have been scored at 9.2 an over, the third-highest among all Indian venues behind Hyderabad (9.7) and Bengaluru (9.2).
Next three fixtures
DC are set for a prolonged stay in Visakhapatnam, where they will next play Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on March 30 - a game that will test crowd loyalty, considering local boy Nitish Kumar Reddy will play for the "away" team. Their third game will be against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Chennai.
After Monday, LSG make a quick hop across to Hyderabad to play SRH on March 27, before going home to Lucknow for their first home game, against Punjab Kings (PBKS).
