Rishabh Pant will captain the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2021 in absence of injured Shreyas Iyer.
The six venues are Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad. The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad will host the final of the tournament on May 30. Delhi Capitals will face off against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their first match on April 10, which will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
IPL 2021: Delhi Capitals name Rishabh Pant as captain after Shreyas Iyer is ruled out for the season
Delhi Capitals were dealt a huge blow before the IPL 2021 began, as their captain Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the entire tournament due to a shoulder injury he suffered in the first ODI between India and England in Pune on March 23. He will undergo surgery to fix his dislocated left shoulder.
Under Iyer, who took over the captaincy from Gautam Gambhir in the middle of IPL 2018, Delhi Capitals have risen to new heights, making it to the playoffs in IPL 2019 and finally realizing their dream of qualifying for the finals in IPL 2020.
The Capitals also had a successful outing in the IPL 2021 auction, buying the likes of Tom Curran (Rs. 5.25 crore), Steve Smith (Rs. 2.2 crores), Sam Billings (Rs. 2 crores), and Umesh Yadav (Rs. 1 Crore) as their main players, while also getting Ripal Patel (Rs. 20 Lakh), Vishnu Vinod (Rs. 20 Lakh), Lukman Meriwala (Rs. 20 Lakh) and M Siddharth (Rs. 20 Lakh) to complete their squad.
Keeping in mind the squad of the Delhi Capitals (DC), Team COC Presents to you the Best Playing XI for their first match of the IPL 2021.
The Delhi Capitals (DC) had found a very working and in fact highly rewarding playing XI in the IPL 2020 and they might not want to tinker with the same. They might go for Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw as their opening combination, followed by Ajinkya Rahane at no.3.
Ajinkya Rahane played a handful of matches in IPL 2020 but is expected to replace Shreyas Iyer in the playing XI. They also have the option of bringing in Steve Smith, who was bought for his base price in the IPL 2021 auction, but that would require some tinkering in the settled XI they had in the previous edition.
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Rishabh Pant might move one spot up in the XI to no.4 spot, and now has the added responsibility of leading the team as well, and keeping wickets. Delhi Capitals have the option of bringing in Sam Billings or Vishnu Vinod to keep wickets to lessen the burden on Pant, in later stages of the tournament.
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The two spinners on whom DC might count on are Akshar Patel and R Ashwin, with Ashwin doing amazingly well for DC in IPL 2020, while Akshar Patel was coming off a successful international outing against England.
DC can also go for Ishant Sharma, but he has not played white-ball cricket for quite some time.
Delhi Capitals will hope for a repeat of the IPL 2020, and probably go one better and win the entire thing this time and becoming the IPL 2021 champions.
COC predicted best playing IPL 2021 XI for DC:
Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (C&WK), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshar Patel, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje