Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel won the toss and chose to bat first against Punjab Kings (Image Source: BCCI/IPL)
New Delhi: Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel won the toss and chose to bat first against league-leading Punjab Kings in their IPL 2026 match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday. DC currently sit sixth in the points table, and Axar admitted during the draw that the team made mistakes that could have been avoided in the tournament.Both teams entered with an unchanged lineup – Delhi Capitals from their previous match, as well as Punjab Kings, who sit at the top of the table with five wins from six matches.“We’ll bat first. It’s looking a bit dry and obviously it’s a day game, and you know it’s very hot as well. So we’re thinking about putting up a good total first and then trying to defend it. (Do you think it will get too slow later?) Yes, from the looks of it, it looks like it will slow down a bit later, and the bowlers might get some help as well.”
So we want to post a good total first and give the bowlers the opportunity to benefit from any help from the wicket.
“We want to focus on ourselves,” Axar said during the draw.
“Every team we play plays good cricket. We have also played good cricket, but the thing is that in crucial moments, I think we don’t win those moments in the game. We make silly mistakes, and if we correct those mistakes, I think we will get back on track.”
If we have consistency, and we fix the little mistakes we make on the field or in making decisions at crucial times, I think we will be on the winning side most of the time.
“We are playing with the same team,” he said.“It’s important to stay in the moment, that’s how you want the environment to be. Personally, I feel you just have to keep training harder and keep improving every now and then, better than the previous performance,” said Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer, who also named a fixed XI.
That’s what I always tell my teammates as well.”“We need to inculcate the right habits in the dressing room and the culture we have built so far. Touching wood has been great. We just have to keep enjoying the game and enjoying each other. I love playing ball. Fortunately, I had a little discussion with Axar before the toss. He said he was going to bat, so I was happy that we were going to bowl and the toss didn’t matter.”
“We are going with the same team,” Iyer said.the difference:Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh (W), Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (C), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marko Janssen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vishak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): KL Rahul (W), Pathum Nissanka, Samir Rizvi, Axar Patel (C), Nitish Rana, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.Influential submarines:Delhi Capitals: Viraj Nigam, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, Ashutosh Sharma, Aqib Nabi DarKings of Punjab: Nihal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod.