The upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to kick off from March 28. So far, the schedule of only first 20 matches has been released due to state elections.
Ahead of the season, Delhi Capitals` (DC) skipper Axar Patel spoke about star batsman KL Rahul`s role in the team. He explained that in the previous edition, the team consisted of the likes of two overseas players, who were playing at the top order, following which Rahul was pushed in the middle order.
“Last year, he was playing in the middle order because of our team combination. The players we had there were two foreign players, who could play in the top order, and, if you make foreign players play in the middle order, then teams use spin more,” he said.
Ahead of the IPL 2026, the skipper said that Rahul will play an opening batsman, considering that he has scored a lot of runs at the position.
“So, because of this, we used KL Rahul in the middle order last year. He has always been good, in the opening slot, he has made a lot of runs. And if you get a good start in T20 cricket, then it becomes easier for the ones at the back. So, I think till now, we will keep him as an opener,” said Rahul.
DC will begin the IPL 2026 campaign by playing their first match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 1 at the Ekana Cricket Stadium B Ground in Lucknow.
IPL 2026, Lucknow Super Giants vs Delhi Capitals: Full Squads
Lucknow Super Giants: Mitchell Marsh, Mohammed Shami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Aiden Markram, Avesh Khan, Wanindu Hasaranga, Himmar Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Rishabh Pant (C) (WK), Josh Inglis (WK), M Siddharth, Moshin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Arjun Tendulkar, Akash Singh, Abdul Samad, Arshin Kulkarni, Naman Tiwari, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Mayank Yadav, M Choudhary (WK), Prince Yadav, Digvesh Rathi.
Delhi Capitals: David Miller, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, KL Rahul (WK), Karun Nair, Axar Patel (C), Ben Duckett (WK), Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Rana, Kyle Jamieson, Lungi Ngidi, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Pathum Nissanka, Ajay Mandal, Prithvi Shaw, Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Abhishek Porel (WK), Vipraj Nigam, Tripurana Vijay, Sahil Parakh, Madhav Tiwari.
(With ANI Inputs)
