Australia pacer Mitchell Starc has finally joined the Delhi Capitals camp, almost one month after the start of the IPL 2026 season. He was dealing with a shoulder and elbow injury, as Cricket Australia was closely monitoring his development. Earlier in the week, they finally gave the green light to Starc to join the DC squad for the cash-rich league, but the pacer is not yet entirely ready.
He arrived in India early to get accustomed to the conditions and is expected to be available since May 1 against Rajasthan Royals. Thus, even though Starc had joined the camp earlier today, he remains unavailable at the moment. That shouldnโt, however, bother Delhi against Punjab, as South Africa international Lungi Ngidi has done a commendable job in Starcโs absence. So much so that it needs to be seen if the left-arm pacer is straightaway drafted to the XI against RR.
In the meantime, Starc was seen travelling with the team for the match against PBKS. He hit the field for training as well.ย
Delhi Capitals opt to bat first
Delhi captain Axar Patel won the toss and elected to bat first at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Explaining the reason behind the move, the all-rounder noted that the wicket looked dry and he believes that the conditions will improve for the bowlers in the second innings.
โWe will bowl first. It looks a bit dry and obviously itโs a day game, and you know itโs quite hot as well. So weโre thinking of putting up a good total first and then trying to defend it. Yes, from the looks of it (think it will get quite slow later on), it seems like it will slow down a bit later, and the bowlers might get some help as well. So we want to post a good total first and give the bowlers a chance to make use of any assistance from the wicket,โ Axar said, explaining his decision.ย
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): KL Rahul (wk), Pathum Nissanka, Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (c), Nitish Rana, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar
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