Prithvi Shaw to face axe? ENG star to make debut: DC’s Dream11 Prediction vs KKR in IPL 2023
David Warner’s men are winless, firmly rooted to the bottom of the table and their playoff hopes are all but gone.
Bottom-of-the-table Delhi Capitals (DC) take on the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 20 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi and will hope to open their account for the season after five consecutive defeats so far.
David Warner’s men are winless, firmly rooted to the bottom of the table and their playoff hopes are all but gone. Nothing is going right for the David Warner-led side, the team's think-tank is struggling to stem the rot that has set in and have chopped and changed the line-up several times so far to find a solution. So far this season they have lost to LSG, GT, RR, MI and last time out lost again to RCB in Bangalore. Looking at their performances so far, there is a real chance that DC could lose all their games this season.
The coaching staff still believe that the players are good enough and that their form will turn around in the next few games. DC have lost wickets in clumps in all of their games so far. The bowling and fielding efforts have also been underwhelming.
The team needs to improve considerably in all three departments if DC wants to win even a single game this season.
Warner is one of the leading run-scorers this season with 228 runs but his strike rate of 117 is a concern. He has been struggling to score runs at rapid rate and has looked frustrated out on the field while batting. The team losing wickets in heaps around him has also not helped his cause.
Prithvi Shaw has had a woeful start to the season. The coaching staff have time and again backed and defended him but he has only scored 34 runs so far this season. Sarfaraz has once again failed to deliver on his promising domestic form and is running out of time to realise his potential. Mitch Marsh has also been very underwhelming this season and has only scored three runs in the three games he has played.
DC could bring in Phil Salt in the starting XI in place of Prithvi Shaw. The hard-hitting English batter is known for his attacking innings at the start and his explosive style might be exactly what DC needs to support Warner while he takes his time and plays the anchor role.
Delhi's pacers have been taken to the cleaners in most of the games this season. Spinners Axar, Lalit and Kuldeep Yadav are also yet to churn out match-winning performances.
Mustafizur Rahman was extremely expensive against RCB and could be replaced in the line-up with a domestic seam bowler as that would also enable DC to bring in Salt for the under-pressure Shaw.
The bowling unit has had no answer for the onslaught from opposition batters and will need to come up with better plans if they are to be successful in the upcoming games. DC have a number of domestic seam bowling options in Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar and Chetan Sakariya but none of them have been good enough this season.
DC’s Dream11 Prediction vs KKR in IPL 2023
Openers: David Warner (c), Phil Salt.
Middle Order: Abhishek Porel (wk), Yash Dhull, Manish Pandey.
All-Rounders: Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Mitch Marsh.
Bowlers: Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar.
Impact Player
Aman Khan, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed have all been used as the Impact Player so far, so it’s anyone’s guess who DC decides to use as the IP in the match against KKR.
