Karun Nair was back in Delhi Capitals’ XI, while Sediqullah Atal made his debut

ESPNcricinfo staff24-May-20253:40

Kumble: Young Indian players key in PBKS’ success

Faf du Plessis stood in as captain for Delhi Capitals (DC) for the second game in a row, and opted to bowl in their final game of the season, against Punjab Kings (PBKS). DC’s regular captain Axar Patel had missed their previous match, against Mumbai Indians three days back, due to a flu, and continued to remain out of action.Du Plessis said at the toss that they were playing an extra batter in Karun Nair, with Abishek Porel dropped, and KL Rahul once again starting on the bench in their bowling-first XI. Tristan Stubbs will slot in as wicketkeeper in Porel’s place. DC also handed an IPL debut to Afghanistan’s opening batter Sediqullah Atal, with Dushmantha Chameera making way.PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer, meanwhile, wants his side to build on the momentum even as they are already into the playoffs. PBKS have won three games in a row going back to when the IPL hadn’t been disrupted, and had last played six days back, when they beat Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur itself.PBKS played the returning Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis in their batting-first XI, as they replaced Mitchell Owen and Xavier Bartlett from the side that beat RR.Victory over DC will push PBKS up to 19 points, and with that, the No. 1 spot in the points table.PBKS bat-first XI: 1 Prabhsimran Singh, 2 Priyansh Arya, 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Nehal Wadhera, 6 Shashank Singh, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Azmatullah Omarzai, 10 Harpreet Brar, 11 Arshdeep SinghImpact Subs: Pravin Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Xavier Bartlett, Kyle JamiesonDC bowl-first XI: 1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Sediqullah Atal, 3 Karun Nair, 4 Sameer Rizvi, 5 Tristan Stubbs (wk), 6 Ashutosh Sharma, 7 Vipraj Nigam, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Mohit Sharma, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Mukesh KumarImpact Subs: KL Rahul, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurna Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Darshan Nalkande