Mumbai, April 10: Delhi Capitals' new captain Rishabh Pant made a positive start to his stint as the leader winning the toss against Chennai Super Kings in the second match of the IPL 2021 here at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday (April 10). The Capitals elected to bowl after calling it correct.
Chennai under MS Dhoni got a boost as veteran batsman Suresh Raina made a return to the 11 after skipping the IPL 2020 owing to personal reasons. For Delhi, Tom Curran, the pacer from England, made his debut as he played for Rajasthan Royals in the previous edition.
The match will also garner a lot of eyeballs because it is a direct match-up between Pant and Dhoni. Pant is the successor of Dhoni in the Indian set up and has remained his understudy for a while before the Jharkhand man retired.
Dhoni said: "We were also looking to bowl, it's slightly difficult to defend on this ground. Dew could be a factor, but it's cloudy tonight, so it might not be a factor. Our combination looks good, some of the overseas players turned up late, some are in quarantine, but we are ready to go - Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran and Dwayne Bravo are our four overseas players."
At the toss, Pant said: "We will bowl first. The wicket looks a bit soft. It will be a mix of youth and experience, have done a bit of captaincy in 2017, but this is my first IPL game as captain. It is good that I am coming up against Mahi bhai. Four overseas players - Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes and Tom Curran."
Delhi Capitals Playing 11: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (Captain, wk) , Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, R Ashwin, Tom Curran, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan
Chennai Super Kings Playing 11: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(Captain, wk), Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.