hasn’t been anywhere near his best in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He has been left out of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) playing XI for their clash against Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday, May 5.
SRH are playing a do-or-die clash after having managed only three wins from 10 games. Meanwhile, DC are in a much better position at No. 5 on the points table with six wins from 10 matches.
Toss Update
Pat Cummins won the toss and decided to bowl first. He spoke about the importance of doing the basics well. He also thanked the SRH fans for their amazing support in a season which has not been very memorable for the former champions. Meanwhile, Axar Patel admitted that he would have also bowled first had he won the toss. However, he said that the wicket looks good and it shouldn’t change much as the game goes on.
Mohammed Shami left out, T Natarajan returns
Shami conceded 48 runs from three overs in SRH’s most recent clash against Gujarat Titans. The Bengal seamer has only picked up six wickets in nine games this season at an average of 56.17, his lowest in a season where he has played more than three matches. His economy rate of 11.23 in IPL 2025 is the worst he has had in any season. Meanwhile, T Natarajan has been picked in DC’s playing XI for the first time in IPL 2025, with Mukesh Kumar named among the Impact Subs.
Sachin Baby, Abhinav Manohar, and Eshan Malinga came into the playing XI for SRH. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Kamindu Mendis have been benched.
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What did the captains say?
Pat Cummins, Sunrisers Hyderabad
We’ll bowl. We’ve talked about a few things, haven’t had a complete game yet. Want to do the basics well. It’s about giving yourself the chance, everyone’s a match-winner. We bat very deep. The support has been amazing, probably haven’t had the results we wanted but the crowd has been amazing. Buzzing around in the field, that’s one thing we can judge ourselves on.
Axar Patel, Delhi Capitals
Would’ve fielded first as well, looks like a good wicket and it shouldn’t change much. Will look to get a good score and restrict them. The last phase is here and these are must-win games. We’ve tried to keep the environment light, we weren’t thinking about these things at the start of the tournament and we played well, want to go into these games with the same mindset and not let the situation pressure us. We’ve had different players contribute, we haven’t been dependant on one player. It’s important to continue the momentum. We want to have close games, even if we lose, we don’t want to lose by big margins. Same combination, three seamers and three spinners.
Playing 11s
Delhi Capitals
Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul (WK), Axar Patel (C), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan.
Impact Substitutes: Ashutosh Sharma, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sameer Rizvi, Mukesh Kumar, Mohit Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (WK), Sachin Baby, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (C), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Eshan Malinga.
Impact Substitutes: Travis Head, Harsh Dubey, Rahul Chahar, Wiaan Mulder, Mohammed Shami
