Monster talent on show as Capitals, Royals go head to head
Royals face selection dilemma with injured Stokes out
Alagappan Muthu
14-Apr-2021
Big picture
These teams are fire. Delhi Capitals once struggled to find an identity for themselves. Now they are the home of young Indian batting geniuses. Rajasthan Royals see-sawed from one extreme to the other, not so much a cricket team as an unruly teenager. But now mum's put her foot down - yes, we want you to picture Kumar Sangakkara as mum - and they've finally promised to behave.
Sanju Samson threatened to exceed those expectations on Monday, when he stayed calm even though he couldn't time the ball at the start of his innings. By the end of it, he wasn't so much a man with a piece of wood in his hand, he was King Kong with an axe. If the new captain can reprise this zen at the crease for, say, a full season, the Royals are going to be trou-bleeee.
The Capitals probably aren't too worried though. They have got monsters of their own. Well-rested ones too. Hear them roar in T-minus 24 hours. Give or take.
In the news
Likely XIs
Rajasthan Royals: 1 Jos Buttler, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Chetan Sakariya, 11 Andrew Tye/Mustafizur Rahman
Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Avesh Khan
Strategy punt
- Losing an allrounder like Stokes can potentially break a team because he just doesn't have a like-for-like replacement. All you can do is plug the batting hole or the bowling hole and pray that in the end you made the right choice. Liam Livingstone might be that choice. He was Perth Scorchers' second-highest scorer as they stormed into the Big Bash finals only two months ago. He also hit 28 sixes in that tournament, the second-most after Alex Hales.
Stats that matter
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo