IPL 2024: Rishabh Pant set for emotional homecoming vs in-form SRH

Rishabh Pant (Pic: File Pic)

The first time Rishabh Pant made a public appearance at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, he walked on crutches, but when emotional Rishabh Pant walks as the captain of Delhi Capitals, he needs to bring his best game out to stop in-form Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024.

Delhi Capitals have had a mixed IPL 2024 season so far, but wins against Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans have helped them secure sixth position on the table.

Placed in the fourth position on the points table, Sunrisers Hyderabad is having a very impressive IPL 2024 campaign. So far, they have posted two of the highest-ever totals 277 and 287.

Travis Head is scoring runs in an aggressive way followed by Abhishek Sharma in the powerplay. Head and Abhishek's intimidating strike rates of 199 and 197 respectively will pose a serious challenge for the pace trio of Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed and Mukesh Kumar.

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Adding to the threat is Heinrich Klaasen also striking at 199, who is one of the best finishers in international cricket with a propensity to hit balls out of the stadium, which gives SRH's batting a scary look. But Kuldeep Yadav's (economy of 6.06) left-arm wrist spin could well prove to be a game changer and in Tristan Stubbs, Pant has got an ideal third spin option alongside Axar Patel (6.75).

Pant, who is himself getting back to the top of his game, wouldn't mind if he could win the toss and opt to bat. But David Warner's knuckle injury is a concern. Jake Fraser-McGurk on the other hand, has impressed in his first two IPL 2024 outings.

While SRH's batting has been top-notch on belters, their bowlers have suffered a lot on those tracks with only skipper Pat Cummins (7.87) having an economy rate of less than 8 runs per over, which is considered good in today's day and age of T20. However seasoned duo of Jaydev Unadkat (11.35) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (10.45), have both been average while spinners wrist spinner Mayank Markande (11.23) and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed (ER 12.44) have been sent on a leather hunt.

The best option for Pant would be to open the batting and go for the jugular against SRH, putting scoreboard pressure on the rampaging Orange Army.

In case the Capitals have to chase, the idea would be to keep SRH down to 210-220 which would be chaseable against an attack which may not be able to hold its own on good batting tracks.

Squads for the IPL 2024 match between DC and SRH:

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c&wk), David Warner, Abishek Porel, Ricky Bhui, Yash Dhull, Shai Hope, Prithvi Shaw, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Swastik Chikara, Ishant Sharma, Jhye Richardson, Rasikh Dar Salam, Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Dubey, Khaleel Ahmed, Sumit Kumar, Axar Patel, Mitchell Marsh, Lalit Yadav, Jake Fraser-McGurk.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (c), Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav (wk), Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Travis Head, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.

(With PTI Inputs)