When Delhi Capitals will go against Rajasthan Royals here on Thursday with the intention of registering the first win of the IPL season, all eyes will be on captain Rishabh Pant, while the team will expect better performance from the batsmen. After being out for 453 days due to a serious car accident, Pant was able to last only 13 balls (18 runs) while returning against Punjab Kings at his new home ground in Mullanpur. Pant, however, impressed behind the wicket and even stumped Jitesh Sharma.
After overcoming the initial jitters of his first match, Pant will be desperate to find his rhythm soon as he has to face experienced bowlers like Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Head coach Ricky Ponting had opted to open the innings with David Warner and Mitchell Marsh in the first match, so that the pair could score enough runs and reduce the pressure on Pant in the middle order. However, both of them failed to take advantage of the good start and the pressure fell on Pant. Wicketkeeper batsman Abhishek Porel, however, played a brilliant inning of 32 unbeaten runs, due to which the Delhi team, despite being in trouble after scoring 138 runs, was successful in scoring a respectable score of 174 runs.