KP will have to wait to lead Delhi in IPL-7. (Getty Images)Match facts
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Start time 1830 (1430 GMT, 2000 IST)
Big Picture
This season of the Indian T20 league is quite important for Virat Kohli. He is widely expected to take over the leadership of the Indian team when MS Dhoni relinquishes it. Leading his franchise to the title would not do his national prospects any harm at all. Gautam Gambhir's leadership credentials started being talked up after he led Kolkata to the title in 2012. It is a different matter that his batting form did not hold up on the international stage.
Kohli has been Bangalore captain for a while now and with the kind of batting riches at his disposal, including Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, it has to be highly disappointing for him that the franchise has not even made the playoffs of the last two editions. As he said recently, this could potentially be the season Bangalore are finally able to break the title drought.
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Kevin Pietersen, the Delhi captain, will be leading a franchise in the most lucrative cricket tournament in the world months after having his international career terminated by his own board. It is a development the cricket world will be watching closely. However, it will have to wait because Pietersen has been ruled out of Delhi's opening match with a finger injury. "Kevin is still a few days away so he won't be considered for tomorrow," Delhi assistant coach Eric Simons was quoted as saying in the Guardian. "It is obviously a setback because he's an important player in our set-up and an important player in any team. It is a difficult situation." Pietersen is doubtful for the second game too.
Dinesh Karthik will lead Delhi against Bangalore. As has become somewhat of a permanent feature for Delhi over the years, Karthik will have a battery of fast bowlers to choose from, led by India quick Mohammed Shami, to try and counter the might of the Bangalore batting, which had another big name added at this year's auction in Yuvraj Singh.
Watch out for ...
Yuvraj Singh finds himself out of India's Test and ODI squads and will quickly want to forget his previous T20 match for the country - the World T20 final a couple of weeks ago in Dhaka. Kohli wanted Yuvraj so dearly that he had his franchise owner put in the auction's highest bid for the senior batsman. This is a critical season for Yuvraj on so many fronts.
Dinesh Karthik's international career has unfortunately coincided with Dhoni's, which means the opportunity to play comes rarely even though he has been around for so long. It came in the recent Asia Cup, but Karthik did not really make it count. He was the second costliest buy in the auction after Yuvraj, and will have another season to make his case again.
Stats and trivia
The head-to-head record between these teams stands at 5-5, with one game tied
Virat Kohli is one of only two batsmen who have been dismissed for 99 in a T20 innings
Preview: Royal Challengers Bangalore
Royal Challengers Bangalore will enter IPL 7 having in their ranks two of the most talked-about Indian players from the last couple of weeks - that is, talked about for completely different reasons.
On one hand, there is Virat Kohli, arguably the in-form batsman in international cricket.
And then there is Yuvraj Singh, painted - perhaps unfairly - as the villain for sucking the momentum out of India's innings in the final with a laboured knock of 11.
Still, while an on-song Yuvraj will be more than welcome, his form with the bat should not hurt the Royal Challengers too much, as they boast perhaps the most explosive line-up in the tournament, with the added experience of Albie Morkel to provide a late surge down the order.
Their main concern, once again, is the fast bowling.
Preview: Delhi Daredevils
Rebirth is the overwhelming theme of Delhi Daredevils this season. They have dispensed with a squad that succumbed during crunch moments and repaired that shortcoming by investing in Kevin Pietersen - a man reputed to unfurl his best when direly needed - as their captain and Gary Kirsten - a man who has a World Cup and the Test championship mace on his resume - as coach.
They also re-enlisted some old friends at the auction. Dinesh Karthik's 1741 runs are the most by an Indian wicketkeeper, barring MS Dhoni. He returned to his IPL roots and was such a priority for Daredevils that he ended up the second-highest buy of the season. Ross Taylor conveyed relief over being back in familiar surrounds, but he will face stiff competition from JP Duminy.
What Daredevils don't possess is depth in spin bowling, a resource that gained value during the World T20.
