IPL 2018: Kings XI Punjab to lock horns with Delhi Daredevils

The biggest extravaganza in cricket is back. We are talking about Indian Premier League 2018.

The eleventh edition of IPL kick-started on a high note on Saturday and witnessed a nail-biting match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led CSK defeated Mumbai Indians to begin the tournament on a winning note.

Talking about Sunday's match, Kings XI Punjab will lock horns with Delhi Daredevils in their home ground Mohali. Interestingly, both the teams have brought on board new captains.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who was previously with Chennai Super Kings, will lead the new-look Kings XI Punjab. This will be Ashwin's maiden stint as captain of an IPL team.

Gautam Gambhir will look to use his previous experience as skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders when he leads Delhi Daredevils. The left-handed batsman is known to display good leadership skills and it will be a challenge for the Kings to tackle Gambir who helped KKR win the title two times.

Both KXIP and DD are yet to win a season of IPL despite showing promise in the initial stages of the tournament.

Read- IPL | MI vs CSK: Chennai win as Dwayne Bravo stars in nail-biting comeback

Talking about the teams, KXIP looks quite balanced with players like Yuvraj Singh, David Miller, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul. The franchise which is co-owned by Bollywood diva Preity Zinta hs opted for freshness and experience in this season.

KXIP bought K L Rahul for a whopping Rs 11 crore and the star cricketer would love to help his team lift its maiden title. Bowling may be a source of worry for Kings XI Punjab as they lack quality pacers who can give jitters to DD's batsmen.

Delhi Daredevils also have an ideal mix of experience and youth. Star players like Chris Morris, Colin Munro, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer add depth to DD's batting order.

Let's have a look at what the stats say about KXIP and DD, two teams that have played a total of 20 matches.

Head to Head record

KXIP-11
DD-09

Match Prediction

Delhi Daredevils have a slight advantage over Kings XI Punjab in their opening encounter in IPL 2018, all thanks to their batting line-up.

Match Details 

Date- April 8, 2018
Time- 4pm

Venue- Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali

Squads

Kings XI Punjab : Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Lokesh Rahul(w), Marcus Stoinis, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Yuvraj Singh, David Miller, Axar Patel, Chris Gayle, Ankit Rajpoot,  Barinder Sran, Andrew Tye, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Manzoor Dar, Aaron Finch, Manoj Tiwary, Ben Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mohit Sharma, Akshdeep Nath, Mayank Dagar

Delhi Daredevils : Gautam Gambhir(c), Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Rishabh Pant(w), Shreyas Iyer, Vijay Shankar, Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Trent Boult, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Daniel Christian, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Naman Ojha, Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Glenn Maxwell