IPL 2025: KL Rahul makes Delhi Capitals debut as SRH elect to bat first

After winning the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins announced that leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari is making his IPL debut, replacing pacer Simarjeet Singh in the playing eleven. SRH are aiming for their second victory of the season following a five-wicket loss to Lucknow Super Giants at home.

Visakhapatnam: KL Rahul is set to make his debut for the Delhi Capitals as Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat first in match 10 of IPL 2025 at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

After winning the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins said leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari has been handed an IPL debut and comes into the playing eleven in place of pacer Simarjeet Singh. SRH are searching for their second win of the season after suffering a five-wicket defeat to Lucknow Super Giants at home.

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The visitors’ have a local lad in all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who knows the venue conditions pretty well. “Afternoon game tends to be hot at the start. Looking to put up a big total. We batted the opposition out of the game last year, hope to do that today. We have to play the way we do, it won’t work out all the time,” he said.

On the other hand, Rahul comes into DC’s playing eleven after missing the side’s nail-biting one-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants last week due to paternity leave. He now comes into the playing eleven in place of uncapped batter Sameer Rizvi and is slotted to bat at number four.

“I’d have batted first as it’s a noon game and the last game, the ball was doing more in the second inns. But it’s all good, toss is uncontrollable. We have played here before, know the conditions, we’ve planned while factoring in the opponents.”

“We have to be brave against SRH, you have to be ahead in the powerplay. You can bowl in the powerplay like it’s the death, try and be aggressive,” said DC skipper Axar Patel.

Playing XIs

Delhi Capitals: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), KL Rahul, Axar Patel (captain), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma and Mukesh Kumar

Impact Substitutes: Karun Nair, Ashutosh Sharma, Sameer Rizvi, Donovan Ferreira, and Tripurana Vijay

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (captain), Zeeshan Ansari, Harshal Patel, and Mohammed Shami

Impact Substitutes: Sachin Baby, Eshan Malinga, Simarjeet Singh, Adam Zampa, Wiaan Mulder