Lucknow, April 1: Delhi Capitals won the toss and chose to bowl against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the fifth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Wednesday.
"We will bowl first. This is our first game on this pitch, and we want to see how it plays," said Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel after winning the toss. Obviously, the data shows that the second team usually wins. As the tournament is starting, we want to assess our bowling performance, and that's what we decided to do. Last season, we started well, but we failed to qualify due to a single match. We want to start well again and see how it goes."
On his overseas selection, Patel said, "We have three batsmen and a bowler: David Miller, Pathum Nissanka, Tristan Stubbs, and Lungi Ngidi."
Rishabh Pant, captain of Lucknow Super Giants, said, "I don't think the pitch conditions matter much. It's always good to have the conditions you want. The pitch won't change much except for the dew. I definitely feel a new energy. We have changed our colours, logo, and mindset over the last year. We are also working on improving our weaknesses.
"We are feeling good, and that's all I have to say. I feel good and ready to perform. Of course, we need to improve from last season. We also need to address the injury concerns. As a captain, I can't focus too much on those things. Our bowlers are fit and ready to make an impact," he added.
Playing XIs:
Delhi Capitals: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Rana, Axar Patel (c), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Lungi Ngidi, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav
Impact substitutes: Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, Ashutosh Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Auqib Nabi
Lucknow Super Giants: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c and wk), Ayush Badoni, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Mohsin Khan, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav, Anrich Nortje
Impact substitutes: Digvesh Singh Rathi, Avesh Khan, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akshat Raghuwanshi