Under fire, the axe may fall on Dr. Prithvi Shaw In the 2023 Indian Premier League, Delhi Capitals play against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
The Delhi Capitals have started their 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign with a 0-5-0 record. The ineffectiveness of the top order, which includes the team’s promising rookie opener, Prithvi Shaw, has been a major issue. Delhi Capitals management may decide to bench Shaw and make one or two more changes in the team in the hopes of finding some consistency ahead of their match against the Knight Riders, with pressure mounting on captain David Warner and other senior players.
After scoring a combined 34 runs in his first five matches this season (with a high of 15), Shaw’s place in Mumbai’s starting lineup has come under scrutiny.
DC’s top order could see some changes against KKR at the Ferozeshah Kotla. DC has dropped all five games thus far this season.
One option is to promote the experienced Manish Pandey, while the other is to bring in the experimental Sarfaraz Khan as a specialized opener for the powerplay overs.
Taking another loss would effectively close the door on the postseason for the David Warner-led squad.
While Australian opener Warner has taken some heat for his poor strike rate, his problems appear to stem more from the fact that he has never been given the opportunity to speed things up due to the constant fall of wickets.
Warner has a strike rate of 116, having scored 228 runs in five games.
The third-ranked Australian all-rounder, Mitchell Marsh, has also been a letdown. It’s unclear if Rilee Rossouw and Rovman Powell will rejoin the action.
Yash Dhull’s early trigger movement of shuffling toward the off-stump is a major technical problem in his batting, and he has not been able to fix it. This makes him a prime candidate for LBW rulings to incoming deliveries.
DC’s bench strength is also rather weak, which is why underperforming players are rarely replaced.
Prithvi Shaw, David Warner (c), Mitchell Marsh, Yash Dhull, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Abhishek Porel (wk), Lalit Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Mustafizur Rahman, and Mustafizur Rahman are the most likely players to start for DC.
