Virat Kohli and KL Rahul will draw significant attention as the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) travel to take on the Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi int he Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Sunday. Both DC and RCB are primed to make it to the playoffs and two points here will further expedite their case for the same.Kohli returns to his home ground after scoring five half-centuries in nine games so far. Four of those 50+ scores have come on the road, and he has pulled off the task of anchoring innings to perfection thus far. Rahul has followed suit for DC, shuffling across the batting order, but coming out triumphant on most occasions, as he continues to push for a place in the Indian T20I unit.
Australian pacers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have been integral to RCB and DC respectively too. Hazlewood has snatched 16 wickets and delivered a formidable penultimate over in the last game against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). Starc has been equally impactful for DC, winning them the game against RR through a fantastic final over and then the subsequent super over.
Kuldeep has foxed the batters in the middle overs throughout the IPL with his googly causing maximum damage to the opposition. Besides 12 wickets in eight games, the left-arm wrist spinner has conceded runs at a frugal rate of 6.50 runs per over.His presence will pose the biggest challenge to the in-form RCB batters on Sunday night.Delhi boy Suyash Sharma has also given a good account of himself in RCB jersey and will be using all his local knowledge to out-think the DC batters.While DC captain Axar Patel has led from the front, he has not bowled a lot in the competition due to a niggle but has completed his full quota of overs in the last game, marking another positive for a team on the charge.Krunal will be performing a similar role for the RCB camp. With 12 wickets in nine games, the left-arm spinner has done the job for his new franchise.DC have been playing only three foreign players since dropping Jake-Fraser McGurk and that is likely to continue with Abhishek Porel and Karun Nair at the top of the order.SquadsDelhi Capitals: Karun Nair, Harry Brook, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Donovan Ferreira, KL Rahul, Axar Patel (captain), Sameer Rizvi , Ashutosh Sharma, Darshan Nalkande, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Vipraj Nigam, Manvanth Kumar L, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Kuldeep Yadav, Dushmantha Chameera, Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.RCB: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (captain), Swastik Chikara, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Philip Salt, Manoj Bhandage, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Liam Livingstone, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Dar Salam, Suyash Sharma, Mohit Rathee, Abhinandan Singh.(With PTI inputs)
