New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) Shubman Gill returned to lead the Gujarat Titans as Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel won the toss and elected to bowl first in Match 14 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.

DC arrive for their first evening game at their home ground after winning back-to-back games, while GT, the IPL 2022 winners, get in to get off the mark on the points table. After winning the toss for the third straight time, Axar said his playing eleven is unchanged from their six-wicket win over the Mumbai Indians.

“We’ve chased well in the last two matches, and this is a fresh wicket. It’s been raining; there could be some moisture. Obviously, we watch as many match-ups as possible, and we try to make it as difficult as possible for the batters to hit.

“I don’t just use match-ups. According to the wicket, if any bowler gives me a good run, then I rotate him according to that. So far, in two matches, it’s been good. I hope it continues,” he said.

Gill, meanwhile, said his neck is ‘much better’ after a muscle spasm there led to him missing the game against the Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad, which GT lost by six runs. Gill, who said the muscle spasm was similar to the injury he suffered in the Kolkata Test against South Africa last year, said he would have batted first anyway.

With Gill coming in, Kumar Kushagra moves out of GT’s playing eleven. “If the weather stays this way, there’ll be no dew in the second innings. I mean, it’s all about assessing the conditions in the first couple of overs. I think we’ve been having some good opening partnerships with me and Sai (Sudharsan).

“So, hopefully, we have a good Power-play and then we can post some good totals along the board. It’s all about clicking in that one game. Even in the last game, we came pretty close, losing by not that many runs. It’s just one guy sticking till the end, whether someone from the middle order or from the top order, and maybe today is the day,” he said.

Pitch number five is being used for Wednesday’s clash, which means the square boundaries are equidistant, while the straight boundary stands at 73m. Kevin Pietersen and Daren Ganga observed that there’s less grass cover on the pitch, and its lighter colours mean it may be a dry wicket, but still conducive for making big runs.

Playing XIs:

Delhi Capitals: KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Vipraj Nigam, Axar Patel (captain), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Kuldeep Yadav, Lungi Ngidi, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar

Impact substitutes: Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (captain), B Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wicket-keeper), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Ashok Sharma

Impact substitutes: Prasidh Krishna, Jason Holder, Manav Suthar, Jayant Yadav, Anuj Rawat

–IANS

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