James Faulkner picks out his Playing XI for Delhi Daredevils against KXIP

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a roller coaster ride, to say the least. Gautam Gambhir must be feeling that right down to his bones as his new franchise has failed till now to produce results worth mentioning. Recently, Australian pacers, James Faulkner and Shaun Tait tried to dissect the reasons behind the past performances of the Delhi and Punjab teams and came up with their own preferred Playing XI for the sides for the upcoming clash between the two.

While Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) have been on a high owing to Chris Gayle’s back to back good knocks, Delhi Daredevils (DD) have looked utterly clueless. KXIP are currently at the second spot in the league table with 4 wins out of 5 played matches. On the other hand, DD are at the bottom-most rung of the ladder with just 2 points off 5 matches to their name.

Faulkner, Tait assess Delhi and Punjab sides

In an interview with ESPNCricInfo, both James Faulkner and Shaun Tait expressed their opinions on how the two teams have been performing, ahead of the high-octane clash between the DD and KXIP sides on Monday (April 23) at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, New Delhi. This’ll be the first home game for the Delhi side in the ongoing season of the IPL and that may add to their advantage. Talking on what can be holding the Gambhir-led side back, Tait opined, “I think they’re just taking a bit of time to gel as compared to the other teams. Obviously a lot of new faces like a lot of teams but these guys, their chemistry, and their batting, they’ve got to work that out.”

Faulkner, on the other hand, reckoned that Chris Morris has to promote up the order for the Delhi batting to come together cohesively. “Morris has to come in earlier. In the last match, he didn’t even get to face a ball… I’d rather Morris come up the order, I think he can have more of an impact up the order,” said Faulkner. He also conceded a chance for Amit Mishra to be included in the side in place of Rahul Tewatia.

Talking on Gambhir’s seeming lack of form up till now in the season and Delhi’s batting woes up the order, Faulkner said, “I think you’re always gonna be a little bit concerned about your start and that’s one thing they’ve been a little bit on and off with.” He lauded Jason Roy for his knocks and commented that Delhi has enough batting firepower as was seen in the match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

James Faulkner’s Playing XI for Delhi Daredevils:

Jason Roy, Gautam Gambhir (c), Shreyas Iyer, Glenn Maxwell, Rishabh Pant, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Trent Boult, Harshal Patel.

Shaun Tait’s Playing XI for Kings XI Punjab:

KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Barinder Sran, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ankit Rajpoot, Andrew Tye, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.