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Faf du Plessis won’t play in today’s IPL 2025 match between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings due to fitness issues. Sameer Rizvi will replace him.
Faf du Plessis is missing his first match for Delhi Capitals. (PC: Sportzpics)
Delhi Capitals (DC)’s most experienced campaigner Faf du Plessis won’t play today’s IPL 2025 match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk. Skipper Axar Patel at the toss said that he was ‘not fit’ to play and Uttar Pradesh’s Sameer Rizvi has come in as the replacement.
This is the first match the South African opener is missing this season. It would be a big blow for the franchise, considering du Plessis‘ expertise in playing in Chennai having spent years at CSK. DC will also have an interesting dilemma to solve: whether to promote KL Rahul to opening or use Abhishek Porel as a stop-gap.
We’ll see that immediately at 3:30 pm IST as Axar won the toss and opted to bat first.
“We are going to bat first,” he said after the flip of the coin, as quoted by Cricbuzz. “Feels like there’ll be help for the bowlers. Expect it to get slower as the game progresses. In our team, we have a few players who have captained other franchises and that helps me a lot. Same combination. Faf is not fit for this game, Sameer Rizvi is playing,” he added.
DC didn’t make any other changes. But, on the other hand, CSK dropped two key players: Rahul Tripathi and Jamie Overton who have been replaced by Devon Conway and Mukesh Chaudhary.
“We were looking to bat first as well,” Gaikwad said at the toss. “Good wicket, looks a bit dry. It’s a bit cloudy, I don’t think it’ll change too much. You always want momentum in T20 cricket, we haven’t got it in the last two games. Last game was an improved performance in terms of batting and bowling. The fielding wasn’t up to the mark. Everyone is eager to have a massive improvement. Overall, the chat has been positive. Batting and bowling, you’ll have an off day in a tournament like IPL. Fielding is something which we can improve day by day. We may not be the greatest fielding side, but we want to be proactive, we want to save those 10-15 runs so that it’ll be easier to chase. Elbow is good. Conway comes in for Jamie Overton. Mukesh comes in from Tripathi.”
Delhi Capitals (Playing 11): Jake Fraser-McGurk, KL Rahul (WK), Abishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (C), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohit Sharma
Impact Subs: Mukesh Kumar, Karun Nair, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira and Tripurana Vijay.
Chennai Super Kings (Playing 11): Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary, Khaleel Ahmed and Matheesha Pathirana
Impact Subs: Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Nathan Ellis
