Titans look for winning momentum against injury-hit Capitals

Gujarat Titans (6th) vs Delhi Capitals (9th)

Ahmedabad, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)

Just two points separate Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals and yet they are three places apart in the points table. Titans are sixth, and like last year, have won and lost three of their first six games. Their captain Shubman Gill is their highest run-scorer, but though he averages 51 at a strike rate 151, he's not yet in the imperious form he was in last season. The good news for Titans, however, is that Gill's most recent innings was perhaps his best of IPL 2024.

Another positive for them is Rashid Khan's return to form. He started this season with four wickets in four games at 36.25 and an economy of 9.06, but has two wickets at an average of 23 and economy of 5.75 in his last two games.

Rashid could be the man Titans use to counter Gill's counterpart, Rishabh Pant, who comes into this contest with 194 runs at a strike rate of 157, having scored two-half centuries and a match-winning 41 off 24 balls in Capitals' most recent fixture in Lucknow. Their head-to-head record in all T20s reads 94 runs off 87 balls for two dismissals.

The Capitals might have made up for Mitchell Marsh's absence through Jake Fraser-McGurk, who scored a fifty against Lucknow, and they were also boosted by Kuldeep Yadav's three-wicket haul on comeback from injury, but they now face a new problem. David Warner had suffered a finger injury while batting against LSG and hasn't been able to "hold the bat properly yet," according to Delhi's head coach Ricky Ponting. That leaves them searching for another fix to their batting line-up ahead of a game they need to win to avoid remaining in ninth place at the mid-way point of their IPL 2024 campaign.

Gujarat Titans WLLWL
Delhi Capitals WLLWL

Sai Sudharsan confirmed that David Miller was "ready to play" after missing three games with a niggle. If Miller comes in for Matthew Wade, Titans could give the wicketkeeping gloves back to Wriddhiman Saha, who missed two games because of a back spasm. Saha batted and kept wickets at practice on the eve of the game, indicating he could return for Wednesday's fixture.

Titans finally picked M Shahrukh Khan in their previous game after he spent the first six matches on the bench despite being signed for INR 7.4 crore. Coming on as Impact Player for Mohit Sharma, he smashed 14 off eight balls in what turned out to be a last-ball win for Titans.

Probable XII: 1 Shubman Gill (capt), 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 David Miller, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Noor Ahmad, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Spencer Johnson, 11 Mohit Sharma, 12 Shahrukh Khan

With Warner likely to be unavilable, Capitals might start with Abishek Porel if they bat first and with Jhye Richardson if they chase.

Probable XII: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Abishek Porel, 3 Shai Hope, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Mukesh Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Khaleel Ahmed, 12 Jhye Richardson

The top three wicket-takers in IPL 2023 were all from Titans. One of them, Mohit Sharma, is their leading wicket-taker this season too. His eight wickets in six games have come at 27 apiece, though he has been taken for 9.39 runs an over. But when Mohit is bowling in Ahmedabad, his average slides down to 13.03 and economy to 7.82, so he could have an impact with his variations against Capitals.

Jake Fraser-McGurk turned 22 a day before taking Capitals to a win on his IPL debut, when he clubbed 55 from 35 balls, but he's enjoyed some stardom already. He scored a List A century off just 29 balls last October, beating AB de Villiers' record of 31 deliveries. This February, in just his second ODI for Australia, he thumped 41 from 18 balls against West Indies. With Marsh and Warner missing, Fraser-McGurk can provide the spark Capitals need to move up the table.

Ahmedabad had first-innings scores of 168 and 162 in two matches, but that went up to 199 when Titans played Punjab Kings. The last two games were won by the chasing team, so expect the side winning the toss to bowl first.