Delhi Capitals face combination questions as race for playoffs heats up

The Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting wanted his side to play its best cricket in the second half of IPL 2020. Instead, as the tournament has progressed, the cracks have started to emerge in the Capitals side. Had Ishant Sharma been fit, he would have been taking the new ball. In his absence, the Capitals are yet to finalise their fifth bowler. After impressing in his first outing, Tushar Deshpande has gone for 12 an over in the next three games while picking up only one wicket. Will they go back to Harshal Patel, who is a handy batsman as well?

While Shikhar Dhawan has looked pristine at the top of the order, Prithvi Shaw's form has also been giving them headaches. So much that they had to drop him for their last match, against the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, his replacement, Ajinkya Rahane, was lbw off the first ball of the innings. Will they go back to Shaw?

The positive thing for the Capitals is, with 14 points from 11 games, they already have one foot in the playoffs. The same cannot be said for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Capitals' opponents on Tuesday. With eight points from 11 games, they have somehow managed to remain in the contention for the playoffs. But their road is not easy. They not only need to win their remaining three games - against the top-three teams on the points table - but also require some other results to go their way.

Moreover, they are coming off a morale-crushing defeat in their last match. Chasing 127 against the Kings XI Punjab, they needed 28 from 24 balls with seven wickets in hand. Instead, they suffered a colossal collapse and were all out for 114. Can they script a turnaround?

In their earlier game in the tournament, David Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Williamson all contributed with the bat to take the Sunrisers to 162 for 4. Rashid Khan then picked up 3 for 14 to restrict the Capitals to 147 for 7 to give the Sunrisers their first win of the season.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 Priyam Garg, 6 Abhishek Sharma, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 T Natarajan

Delhi Capitals: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Harshal Patel, 8 Axar Patel, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Anrich Nortje