There is still a question over KL Rahul’s availability for the Delhi Capitals ahead of the 2020 finalists’ opening encounter in the new edition of the IPL against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Rahul joined the Capitals’ camp a few days ago in Visakhapatnam, the Capitals’ second home venue for a couple of games. However, with Rahul’s wife and actor Athiya Shetty being due, the wicketkeeper-batter’s availability for the first few games including the opener against his former team is uncertain.
“Obviously, he joined the team,” Axar said of Rahul at the pre-match press conference in Vizag. “We don’t know yet [if he’ll play]. Right now we don’t know if he is available or not.” Following Harry Brook’s pullout, the Capitals announced Faf du Plessis as the vice-captain of the side and is likely to open the innings alongside Jake Fraser-McGurk with Rahul set to slot in the middle-order.
Axar Patel was named the new captain for the Capitals ahead of the new season and he will be head-to-head against the franchise’s former skipper Rishabh Pant, who will be at the helm of the Super Giants in what will be the start of a new chapter for both the DC stars (current and former).
“Nowadays cricket has changed a lot. Mostly IPL is more about batsman’s game, fours and sixes. So we have to evolve as a team,” Axar said at the time when the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters were literally bullying the Rajasthan Royals bowlers in Hyderabad, scoring a huge 286/6 batting first while reiterating that keeping things simple will be his mantra in his first full season as a captain.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want to complicate things. As captain I told the group that cricket is a game, keep it simple. A good yorker is a good yorker ball and if your execution is good, then you will be fine. So I am not telling them too much that you should go for this and that. I am just asking them to keep it simple, that’s my strategy throughout the tournament,” Axar added.Read Also
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Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Sunrisers and Chennai Super Kings began their campaigns with a win. The Capitals will take on the Super Giants on Monday with Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings being the only teams left to play their first game of the tournament and will lock horns in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, March 25.
