Delhi Capitals (DC) will have to wait a little longer to unleash their marquee pacer Mitchell Starc, with the Australian quick ruled out of tonight’s high-voltage clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Despite recently linking up with the squad after recovering from elbow and shoulder issues, Starc is not yet part of the playing plans as DC continue to manage his workload carefully.
Starc’s return timeline: Cautious approach from DC
It is being learnt that even though Starc has joined the team, he will not be available for selection for this match. He will only be available for selection from the start of May. With Lungi Ngidi likely to miss out, Starc could have been an apt replacement for an overseas pacer in the DC camp.
However with Starc still some time away from being available for selection, Kyle Jamieson or Dushmantha Chameera are frontrunners for that spot especially if the franchise wants to fill it with an overseas quick.
As of now Delhi stand at the seventh place on the IPL 2026 points table, with 3 wins from 7 matches.
RCB favourites to secure a Playoff berth
Meanwhile, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are favourites to secure a place in the playoffs. They are currently at the second place with five wins from seven games with Virat Kohli in the middle of another stellar season.
He is already the leading run-getter in the history of the tournament and stands 11 runs away from getting to the 9000-run milestone. He can also get past the 400 run in a season mark for the 11th time in this edition, a record extending feat with the likes of David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Rana having achieved the feat in 9 seasons.
Delhi Capitals XII (probable): 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Sameer Rizvi, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 David Miller, 7 Axar Patel (capt), 8 Kyle Jamieson/Dushmantha Chameera, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Mukesh Kumar, 12 Auqib Nabi.