Delhi Capitals have won the toss and have opted to field

Right then, the two skippers are out in the middle. It's toss time..

David Miller: We are ready to go, some guys have been around for a few weeks and some of us have been around since a week or 10 days. We have had enough team meetings and stuff like that. It's always good to be in a new team, it's refreshing for me. It will be good fun. The business starts with the first game. It has been fantastic, I have got good inputs. Our boys like to watch Pant play, looking forward to that relationship (with the captain.) There are 14 games, you are going to win some, you are going to lose some. Mumbai have lost most of their first games, but they have done well following that and won a lot of trophies (in the past.)

Pitch report: 62m square boundaries and 73m down the ground. The pitch has been rolled very nicely, it's hard and even. There is not much grass. The curator has been rolling this pitch since a month. It's a track where a lot of runs will be scored. 180-190 runs are gettable on this surface.

Update: KL Rahul isn't available for today's fixture. Would be interesting to see who Delhi Capitals bring in for him..

So what's it store for us today? We have two teams who have new captains this time around. Rishabh Pant who was a part of the Delhi Capitals, is now Lucknow's captain, while the Delhi Capitals have appointed Axar Patel as their new skipper. KL Rahul who was previously with the Lucknow Giants, is now a part of the Capitals and they will further be boosted by the inclusion of Faf du Plessis and Aussie quick Mitchell Starc - who bowled a decisive spell in the final last year. On the other hand, there have been quite a few injuries in LSG's camp even before the season has begun, so that seems to be an area of concern for the Giants. Their pace attack looks compromised, hence their spinners will have to step up. The likes of Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant will have to pull off something spectacular in order to give DC a proper fight. They do have Shardul Thakur coming in as a replacement for Mohsin Khan, but his performance hasn't been upto the mark when it comes to the IPL. Can he do something special this time around? Only time will tell. For now, stay tuned for the toss and teams..

18:15 Local Time, 12:45 GMT, 18:15 IST:

Preview

With Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul having traded their jerseys ahead of this season, some know-how that would reside in the camps of Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants even as the respective squads have been shuffled. The coaching staff has also undergone a bit of an overhaul. Fresh ideas and fresh personnel are in, but old concerns remain - how to level up to be counted among the elites of the competition.

Even before the season has started, the two teams are already hit with player unavailability concerns. Harry Brook has backed out of the tournament again, and a slew of Indian pacers that LSG had wisely invested in, are unfit to start the season. In some ways, given that Delhi Capitals and the injury-hit Lucknow Super Giants are now probably among the weakest teams on paper, there wouldn't have been a more opportune time for them to come face-to-face with each other.

Both teams failed to make the playoffs last season, but even with their depleted squad, they find themselves with an opportunity to mark a win early this year. That opportunity presents itself in Visakhapatnam, the coastal city which is now serving as the home ground of Capitals for two games. Acing the conditions here will again be paramount for Capitals to gain early momentum and set the tone for their IPL campaign.

The last time they were here, Kolkata Knight Riders, the eventual tournament winners, had taken their bowlers to the cleaners. With a new set of pacers taking charge for the side this season, DC would instead hope to dish out a similar treatment to the inexperienced attack of their opponents this time.

When: Monday, March 24, 2025, 7:30 PM IST

Where: Delhi Capitals vs Lucknow Super Giants, Dr. YSR Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam

What to expect: The last time an IPL game was played at this venue, Kolkata Knight Riders had plundered 272 runs. Given the impacted pace attack of LSG, DC have the opportunity to display their attacking chops in what could be a high-scoring encounter. Interestingly, both the IPL contests played at the venue were won by teams batting first.

Head to Head: LSG lead 3 - 2. Both of Capitals' wins came in the last season.

Team Watch:

Delhi Capitals:

Injury/Unavailability: Harry Brook has pulled out of the IPL, which could potentially affect DC's plans. But that also opens doors for them to strengthen their top order.

Tactics & Matchups: LSG are likely to have three to four left-handers in their middle order, which could potentially dent Axar Patel's effectiveness through the middle. However, that could also make the role of Kuldeep Yadav and the part-time offspin of Tristan Stubbs more handy.

Probable XI: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, KL Rahul, Axar Patel © , Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan, (Impact Sub: Karun Nair/Mohit Sharma)

Lucknow Super Giants:

Injury/Unavailability: Shardul Thakur has come in as a replacement for Mohsin Khan, but LSG have been hit with a slew of injuries to their Indian pacers, with even Mayank Yadav, Akash Deep and Avesh Khan likely to be unavailable for the opening game.

Tactics & Matchups: Axar Patel and Abhisek Porel are the only left-handers in the DC top-seven. That could give LSG spinners a bigger role to play in a side that is likely to be thin on their pace reserves.

Probable XI: Arshin Kulkarni, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c/wk), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph (Impact Sub: Akash Singh/Shahbaz Ahmed/Manimaran Siddarth)

Did you know?

DC played two home games in Visakhapatnam in IPL 2024, winning one and losing the other. Both games at the venue were won by the side batting first

Rishabh Pant last opened the batting in T20s in Nov 2022. In the IPL, he last opened in 2016

Since 2023, KL Rahul has the third lowest strike-rate among openers in IPL, and the second-lowest powerplay strike rate among openers. He could be pushed to the middle order this season.

Squads:

Lucknow Super Giants Squad: Arshin Kulkarni, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, RS Hangargekar, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph, Akash Deep, Shahbaz Ahmed, Manimaran Siddharth, Akash Maharaj Singh, Aiden Markram, Avesh Khan, Himmat Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Aryan Juyal, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Mayank Yadav, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Rathi

Delhi Capitals Squad: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, KL Rahul(w), Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, T Natarajan, Karun Nair, Mohit Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Darshan Nalkande, Sameer Rizvi, Donovan Ferreira, Tripurana Vijay, Manvanth Kumar L, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari