Why is Phil Salt not playing for RCB against Delhi Capitals?
IPL 2025, DC vs RCB: Here's why Phil Salt is not playing for RCB against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) opening batter Phil Salt will be missing the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 fixture against Delhi Capitals. In his place, the management have included Jacob Bethell in the playing XI. During the toss, RCB captain Rajat Patidar confirmed that Salt is down with fever; hence, he is unavailable for the contest at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
“Salt is down with fever. So Jacob Bethell comes in his place,” said Patidar during the toss.
RCB captain Patidar won the toss and opted to bowl first against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The visitors made just one change to their lineup, as Bethell replaced Salt.
Phil Salt has formed a formidable opening partnership with Virat Kohli for RCB. In the nine matches he has played so far, the right-handed Salt has scored 239 runs at an average of 26.56 and a strike rate of 168.31.
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This is the first match that Salt will be missing for RCB in the IPL 2025 season. During the toss, Rajat Patidar said, “We will bowl first. The wicket is quite good to bat on and I don't think it's going to change too much and we like to chase.”
“It was our first win at our home and we will try to continue playing good cricket. In every match, we are trying to improve, so we want to keep learning,” he added.
What did Axar Patel say at toss?
RCB will look to take revenge against Delhi Capitals as earlier this season, the Axar Patel-led side defeated the hosts at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. KL Rahul was the star of the show for Delhi as he helped the franchise chase down a tricky total.
For the contest in Delhi, the hosts made one change to their lineup as they brought in Faf du Plessis in the lineup.
At the toss, Axar Patel said, “That is an advantage too but if we had won the toss, I think we would have batted only and use the wicket in the second innings. In the last game, there was no dew but in the game against Mumbai, there was some dew. ”
Axar Patel also explained his mindset of bowling in the powerplay against Lucknow Super Giants in Delhi Capitals' last fixture in Lucknow.
“They (LSG) had two foreign batters at the top so I wanted to bowl against them. I was bowling with a good rhythm, the plan wasn't to bowl four overs in a row but I kept bowling so I continued with it. Faf is back and the Impact player we will decide according to the situation,” he added.
