Delhi Capitals’ newly signed Indian star KL Rahul has rejoined the squad ahead of their clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2025 on Sunday, March 30. KL Rahul had left the Capitals squad for the birth of his child. KL Rahul was blessed with a baby girl with his wife Athiya Shetty, as he missed DC’s opener against Lucknow Super Giants.
KL Rahul was with the DC camp ahead in the build-up to their tournament opener against LSG but was granted special permission to leave the camp. With KL Rahul now back, he is likely to make his Capitals’ debut in the fixture against SRH on Sunday at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.
DC shared videos of Rahul rejoining the franchise. The video captioned, “You’re loved. You’re ours. You’re home. Welcome to Dilli, KLR”, featured dialogues of Shah Rukh Khan from his film Om Shanti Om. In the video, Rahul had a one-line message, saying “I am home.”
DC will look to add another win to their tally when they take on the SRH in an afternoon fixture at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, March 30.
DC vs SRH : Previous Performances
DC had a close encounter with LSG, but Ashutosh Sharma’s heroics helped them secure the win. DC have only played one match so far in the league as they faced Lucknow Super Giants earlier this week. The Capitals, after winning the toss, opted to bowl first. Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran scored brilliant half-centuries as the visitors posted 209/8 in their 20 overs. In reply, the Axar Patel-led side lost four wickets under the powerplay.
However, a 48-run partnership between Tristan Stubbs and Ashutosh Sharma brought them back in the run chase. Later, Vipraj Nigam’s late cameo and Ashutosh’s composure till the end handed the side a narrow one-wicket win with three balls to spare. Notably, star batter KL Rahul will be back in the playing XI after missing the first game due to the birth of his first child.
The Sunrisers began their campaign with a dominant 44-run win over Rajasthan Royals but suffered a five-wicket defeat to Lucknow Super Giants.
Speaking of Sunrisers Hyderabad, the side won their first match of IPL 2025 by 44 runs against Rajasthan Royals at their home in Hyderabad. An impressive batting display by Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, and Nitish Kumar Reddy powered the side to a huge total of 286/6.
Later, their decent bowling efforts helped them restrict the Royals to 242/6, winning the game by 44 runs. After a bright start, SRH hit a roadblock when they clashed with the Lucknow franchise. The Rishabh Pant-led side bowled well to keep the former champions to 190/0 on a batting track in the first innings. Marsh and Pooran played phenomenal innings to help the away team win by five wickets with 23 balls to spare.
DC vs SRH : Head to Head
Heading into the game, Delhi Capitals may have a slight psychological edge, having won both of their previous encounters against the Sunrisers in Vizag, though both matches were tightly contested. Overall, however, Sunrisers Hyderabad lead the head-to-head 13-11. SRH 13- 11 DC. SRH won 2 of the last 3 fixtures since IPL 2023. Interestingly, all the three recent fixtures between these teams have been won by the team batting first.
| Matches Played | 24 |
| Won by Delhi Capitals | 10 |
| Won by Sunrisers Hyderabad | 13 |
| Tied | 01 |
| No Result | 00 |
| First-ever Fixture | April 12, 2013 |
| Most-recent Fixture | April 20, 2024 |
DC vs SRH : Pitch and Weather Report
The wicket at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam is batting-friendly, with a hard surface ensuring the ball comes nicely onto the bat. In the previous season, the venue had an average scoring rate of 10.34. The first game that this ground hosted in the IPL 2025 saw a successful chase of 209. The pitch has less help to new ball bowlers, while spinners might get some turn, but not enough to trouble batters significantly. The team winning the toss will opt to bowl first.
34 fours and 29 sixes were hit in the previous game here in Vizag. If that is anything to go by, bowlers will have to brace for yet another exhausting day. The overhead conditions look bright and clear and no rain is expected for the entire duration of the game. The temperature is expected to hover around 30s and the evening breeze should bring some relief for the team fielding second.
It’s an afternoon game on a batting-friendly surface, so a 200-plus first-innings score should be the expectation. In the IPL, the team batting first has won 50% of all matches in Visakhapatnam. The last three first-innings totals in the IPL here have been 191, 272 and 209.
DC vs SRH : Big Picture : KL Rahul set to make DC debut
Travishek fear no one. Except, maybe, Mitchell Starc. Travis Head does not like facing Starc, and after taking strike and being bowled by the big left-arm quick for a two-ball duck in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2024, he let Abhishek Sharma take first strike in the final, and you know what happened next.
Starc now takes the new ball for a different team, and he’ll be up against Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) gun opening pair again on Sunday afternoon. If Starc can have the same sort of impact, it would be a major relief for a Delhi Capitals (DC) bowling unit that also includes Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Mukesh Kumar.
On the other side, there’s Pat Cummins – renowned for giving his players full license to express themselves and bat with fearless freedom. The expectations from Sunrisers’ batting unit were so high in their previous clash against LSG that even a total of 190 felt underwhelming. On paper, SRH might boast the stronger batting lineup, but when they take on DC in Vizag, expect a contest packed with all the spice of a high-octane showdown.
Last season, these three were on the receiving end of an onslaught from Head and Abhishek that blasted SRH to a record IPL powerplay score of 125 for 0. That was in Delhi. This time, the battle shifts to Visakhapatnam, where DC staged a stunning comeback win against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their most recent game. SRH, meanwhile, are coming off a defeat to the same opponents.
DC’s opening victory was built on resilience. With the ball, they clawed back to restrict LSG to 209 despite letting them get to an ominous 161 for 2 in 13 overs. With the bat, they resurrected themselves from 66 for 5 to scrape past their target with three balls to spare. Even when they crumbled in both powerplays and both post-powerplay phases, they refused to tap out.
The moment Ashutosh Sharma smashed one down the ground to seal Delhi Capitals’ opening game, he celebrated with an imaginary switch-hit, dedicating the victory to team mentor Kevin Pietersen. The DC dugout erupted in joy, and their skipper made it clear that this aggressive approach was here to stay. “Get used to it now. Under my captaincy, it’s going to be like this only,” Axar declared.
That resilience will be key as they seek a second win, armed with fresh insights on containing SRH. LSG’s strategy of treating the full 20 overs like the death proved effective, and DC have the personnel to replicate it. Mohit Sharma and Mukesh have the skillsets, and Axar and Kuldeep bring another year of wisdom.
A lengthy break since their opening game against Lucknow Super Giants would have allowed DC to settle down and think of strategies to consolidate their winning start. On the other hand, Sunrisers have a short turnaround time from their loss to LSG as they look to avoid successive losses after their five-wicket drubbing at home on Thursday.
Rishabh Pant was brave enough to ask Sunrisers to bat, and the bowlers justified his call at the toss with a clever performance to stun the SRH batting arsenal. Will DC, if they win the toss, be bold enough to put SRH into bat in Vizag where the square boundaries are relatively short
But DC are not without problems of their own. Their top order misfired against LSG, and they can’t keep relying on their lower order to keep bailing them out. New father KL Rahul is set to make his franchise debut, and DC will have to figure out the best way to fit him into their line-up. And they’ll be wary of an SRH unit that will be desperate to prove that Thursday’s loss was a mere aberration.
While DC will be boosted by the return of KL Rahul, their top order performance in their last game is a cause for concern considering none of their top five touched 30 while chasing 210 against LSG (three of them being single-digit scores). It’s a stat they would love to correct on Sunday while SRH too would want to put behind the below-par batting show against LSG as an aberration and get back to their merry run-making ways.
DC vs SRH : In the spotlight : Â Nitish Kumar Reddy
Though SRH play this as an “away” game in Visakhapatnam, Nitish Kumar Reddy will be right at home in the city of his birth. SRH have earmarked him as a long-term player and he has started the season with scores of 32 and 30. Sandwiched between them at No. 4, Reddy is the perfect foil for Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen, and he’s a major threat against spin, as his IPL strike rate of 170.19 since the start of 2024 suggests.
DC vs SRH : Vital Stats that matters
- Head vs Starc in all recognized cricket: seven innings, eight runs, 29 balls, five dismissals, 0 boundaries. Of the five dismissals, four have been bowled and one caught behind.
- Faf du Plessis has a favourable match-up against Mohammed Shami in the IPL, scoring 106 runs in 61 balls for only two dismissals. However Shami has been brilliant against KL Rahul, allowing only 28 runs to be scored in 31 balls while dismissing him twice.
- In the IPL, Axar Patel has an economy rate of just 6.51 against right-hand batters, but has gone at 9.07 against left-hand batters.
- Jake Fraser-McGurk scored 330 runs in nine innings in IPL 2024 at a strike rate of 234.04 and averaged 36.66. Since then, he has scored only 382 runs in 24 T20 innings, at a strike rate of 136.91 with an average of 15.91.
- Abhishek Sharma has the best strike-rate (197.3) against spin in IPL since 2023 among all the batters who have faced at least 100 balls.
- Harshal Patel is the leading wicket-taker in IPL since 2021, having picked up 92 wickets in 60 matches at an average of 20.23 with an economy of 8.78
DC vs SRH : Team news for DC and SRH
Delhi Capitals
Injury and Availability:Â KL Rahul has joined the squad after the birth of his daughter and is all set to make his DC debut. Sameer Rizvi is likely to make way for him in the middle order.
With KL Rahul set to play, he is expected to slot in at No. 4, likely replacing Sameer Rizvi. Mukesh’s availability remains uncertain after he sustained an ankle sprain against LSG, while T Natarajan, who is recovering from a shoulder issue, is unlikely to feature against his former team. If Mukesh is ruled out, Darshan Nalkande could step in. Another possibility is retaining Rizvi, dropping Fraser-McGurk, and bringing in fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera.
Tactics and Matchups:Â Mitchell Starc, playing for KKR, dismissed both openers once in the 11 balls he bowled against them last season. The star pacer, who also conceded only 7 runs against the SRH openers, will be keen to make an early impact again
DC Playing XI : Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abhishek Porel(w), KL Rahul, Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar.
Impact Player: Ashutosh Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Injury and Availability: Skipper Cummins made no changes against LSG after their opening game and it is highly likely that they could stick to the same combination. There are no injury concerns in the SRH camp and they could field an unchanged team.
Tactics and Matchups:Â Kuldeep Yadav’s 22 deliveries to Heinrich Klaasen in T20s were all wicketless, with 39 coming off them. Meanwhile, Kuldeep has a better record against the SRH top order, having dismissed Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan twice each, and Travis Head once, and DC might look at using him slightly early in the game.
SRH Playing XI : Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins(c), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami.
Impact Player:Â Adam Zampa
DC vs SRH : Probable Best Performers
Probable Best Batter: Travis Head
After getting runs under his bat in the last two games, SRH’s opener, Travis Head, could again emerge as the best batter of the match in the upcoming clash. The Southpaw has so far scored 114 runs in two innings at an average of 57.00 and a strike rate of 193.22. He will look to play a solid innings and lead his side to their second victory of the season against the Delhi-based franchise
Probable Best Bowler : Kuldeep Yadav
Kuldeep Yadav‘s spin bowling will be crucial for DC, and he could do some serious damage in the upcoming encounter. The left-arm spinner can provide crucial breakthroughs during matches and can be economical at the same time. In their last game, the 30-year-old bagged two wickets and gave just 20 runs in his quota of four overs.
Against SRH in Delhi last season, Kuldeep Yadav endured a brutal start, getting hit for four sixes in his first seven balls by Abhishek. But he responded by dismissing Abhishek, Head, Aiden Markram and Nitish Kumar Reddy, three of whom will feature on Saturday. He conceded 55 in four overs, but his breakthroughs prevented SRH from soaring beyond their final total of 266.
Head, in particular, has shown signs of struggling against left-arm wrist spin, being dismissed twice in nine balls against that style of bowling in the IPL, which makes Kuldeep a option to bring on early if the South Australian starts ominously against the new ball. As LSG proved against SRH, wickets are the only way to contain their explosive line-up.
DC vs SRH : Match Prediction
Scenario 1
- Delhi Capitals win the toss and bowl
- PP Score – 60-70
- SRH- 210-220
- Delhi Capitals win the match
Scenario 2
- Sunrisers Hyderabad win the toss and bowl
- PP score – 50-60
- DC- 200-210
- Sunrisers Hyderabad win the match
Also Read: IPL 2025: KL Rahul’s Crucial Role in IPL 2025 After Harry Brook’s Shocking Exit from Delhi Capitals