Will Jacks: It's been a bit of a slow start as a team and for myself. Everyone wants to contribute and the good thing about the IPL is that there are plenty of opportunities. The team wants to get a win today. (On playing different leagues) Every time you change, it has its difficulties but you're used to it now. It's about getting to know the players and coaches as quickly as possible. We have a good group and know each other pretty well, it's about translating that into a performance. I've only bowled one over since that first game, Hardik has come in and taken over those overs that I bowl. I don't expect to bowl much but I'm ready to bowl if needed. We talked about how close we've been in the last two games. We've done a lot of good stuff. We just missed out on the small bits, maybe a bit of smartness with both bat and ball. We know we don't need to rectify loads.

Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:

Mumbai Indians Impact Subs: Corbin Bosch, Robin Minz, Ashwani Kumar, Raj Bawa, Karn Sharma

Delhi Capitals Impact Subs: Darshan Nalkande, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Donovan Ferreira, Dushmantha Chameera

Teams:

Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, KL Rahul(w), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel(c), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton(w), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah

Hardik: Conversations are about where we are making mistakes. There's no lack of experience in this group. We're not far from having a good game. We're trying not to hit the panic button. Panicking doesn't help.

Axar: We'll bowl first.

Delhi Capitals have won the toss and have opted to field

Pitch report | Murali Kartik and Danny Morrison: The square boundaries are 60m and 66m respectively, it's 72m down the ground. The highest score is 235 at this venue. There's straw-colored grass on the pitch with lots of visible cracks. Not exactly as flat as we normally see the surfaces to be. Having said that, will it have an effect on the run-scoring? Don't think so. More teams have won while batting first at this venue, so win the toss and bat first.

Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, are in a desperate situation with just one win in five matches. Not much has clicked for them, starting right from Rohit Sharma's poor form at the top of the order. Rohit has crossed 20 just once in his last 11 IPL innings, while Rickelton and Jacks haven't hit their straps either. Will there be a change in the order for MI? Tilak Varma has previously done really well for them at number three but has had to adjust to a role in the middle-order this year. Will he be pushed back up?

Pitch report | Murali Kartik and Danny Morrison: The square boundaries are 60m and 66m respectively, it's 72m down the ground. The highest score is 235 at this venue. There's a straw colored grass on the pitch with lots of visible cracks. Not exactly a flat surface. Having said that, will it have an effect on the run-scoring? Don't think so. More teams have won while batting first at this venue, so win the toss and bat first.

Pitch report: It's tirst game in Delhi. The square boundaries are 60m and 66m respectively, it's 72m down the ground. The highest score is 235 at this venue. There's a straw colored grass on the pitch with lots of visible cracks. Not exactly a flat surface. More teams have won while batting first at this venue, so win the toss and bat first, reckons Murali Kartik.

Not just with bat, the Capitals have so many wicket-taking options with ball as well. There's Mitchell Starc with the new ball, and then two wristspinners in the middle overs - both bowling with brilliant control.

Delhi Capitals are the only unbeaten team in this tournament so far. They've won four straight matches to start their campaign and are looking incredibly strong with both bat and ball.

6.30pm local: Hello everyone and welcome to our coverage of Match 29 between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians. The IPL caravan moves to Delhi for the first time this season and if the pitches are anything like they were last year at the Kotla - with nine scores of 199+ in 10 innings - brace yourselves for some insane hitting.

Preview by Purnima Malhotra

Before the IPL could, unseasonal rains graced Delhi bringing with them violent dust storms that interrupted Mumbai Indians' practice sessions two days in a row. After nearly a week off, the fashionably slow-starting Mumbai are now desperate for winds of change as they resume their faltering IPL 2025 campaign against table-toppers Delhi Capitals in Sunday's evening clash.

The Capitals arrive in Delhi as the only unbeaten team of the season, boasting four wins - two in their adopted home of Vizag, followed by away wins in Chennai and Bengaluru. After the nail-biting one-wicket finish in their season opener, Delhi's victories have only gotten increasingly emphatic in nature. At the heart of this has been a liberated KL Rahul. Rahul's first-10 balls strike-rate in IPL has seen a major upward hike for the first time in seven years - he's going at 180 with an improved boundary-percentage of 28 - that has helped DC cover-up for the early loss of wicket(s) in PowerPlays.

For MI, barring the 62-run stand against KKR, Ryan Rickelton has struggled for fluency, and Rohit Sharma's form dip has only deepened the concern. Rohit has crossed 20 just once in his last 11 IPL innings. In the DC camp, Jake Fraser-McGurk hasn't quite hit his stride either - post-IPL 2024, he's averaged 15.28 in T20s, with 13 single-digit scores and four ducks in 28 innings. While DC have managed to paper over that with Rahul's resurgence and a resilient lower order led by Ashutosh Sharma, MI have seen only sporadic flashes from their middle order - something Deepak Chahar alluded to ahead of the game.

Bowling hasn't offered Mumbai much respite either. Their PowerPlay average of 51.83 is the second-worst in IPL 2025, in stark contrast to DC's 27.62. The absence of Jasprit Bumrah early on has clearly hurt - MI have managed just six PowerPlay wickets across five games, while DC have eight in four. At the death, the contrast is even starker: MI are leaking runs at 11.51 per over, while DC boast the best economy at 8.51.

On pitches as unabashedly batting-friendly as Delhi's turned out in IPL 2024, the bowling units can perhaps be forgiven for their dwindling numbers. However, the spotlight and onus would be on the batters to give their team the decisive headstarts. Can Mumbai - with a solitary win in five matches so far - help themselves off the bottom-half while also showing the league a way to beat DC this season?

When: Sunday, April 13 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

What to expect: The two (dust)stormy evenings in the lead up have helped bring down temperatures in the city although the unseasonal changes aren't expected to last until the match day. The venue was the highest-scoring ground in IPL 2024 with an average first-innings score of 235 in the five games here last season. Expect little to change on that front.

Head to Head: Mumbai lead 19-16 in their 35-game rivalry and it's been pretty neck to neck since 2022 as well with 3-2 in MI's favour. At the venue though, Delhi have won 7 of the 12 contests including their last meeting in 2024.

Teams Watch

Delhi Capitals

Injuries/Availability: Faf du Plessis and KL Rahul were the notable absentees in the training session on match-eve, although it was an optional session for the home side. Sameer Rizvi got the nod in du Plessis' absence in Chennai a game ago, but if the South African's absence is a mere precaution then DC have little reason to tweak their combination for their first home game.

Tactics & Match-ups: Rohit Sharma averages just 21 against Axar Patel. His strike-rate also dips to 91.3 against the left-arm spinner who has dismissed the former MI skipper thrice in 10 games. Don't rule out the possibility of Axar bringing himself on in the PowerPlay yet again this season. Rohit also has a tendency to lose his wicket to left-arm pacers with 14 such instances in all T20s since 2023, making his match-up against Mitchell Starc one to watch-out for.

Probable XII: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, KL Rahul (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel (c), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar

Mumbai Indians

Injuries/Availability: Wth Jasprit Bumrah also bowling full tilt on match-eve, there's no reported injury concerns in the MI camp.

Tactics & Match-ups: Trent Boult has had the wood over Faf du Plessis in IPL. The South African averages only 27.25 against Boult, his strike-rate is just a shade above 111, and has lost his wicket to the New Zealander four times in 14 meetings making for an interesting PowerPlay match-up upfront.

Probable XII: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickleton (wk), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Vignesh Purthur

Did you know?

- At the Arun Jaitley Stadium last season, 200 was crossed in 8 of the 10 completed innings while the other two scores were 199 and 189/9

-Having won their last league game in 2024, DC have now five consecutive wins in the IPL - their longest such streak in the competition history

-KL Rahul is the leading run-scorer against MI in IPL with 950 runs in 18 innings at an average of 79.16 and strike-rate 135.52

- Rohit Sharma averages 35.22 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium with 634 runs in 20 innings here at an impressive strike-rate of 142.15

What they said:

"If your preparation is good, it doesn't make any difference if you are playing in Delhi or in Vizag. And everyone has played a good amount of cricket in Delhi, so everyone knows how the wicket will play here."- Ashutosh Sharma isn't fazed ahead of DC's first home game

"We've seen a lot of individual performances from our team in the first-five matches, only a collective team performance has been missing. When everyone did well in one game, we won by a big margin - that shows the team's potential." - Deepak Chahar is hoping for a team performance for MI to get back to winning ways

Squads:

Delhi Capitals Squad: Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, KL Rahul(w), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel(c), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, T Natarajan, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Darshan Nalkande, Sameer Rizvi, Donovan Ferreira, Tripurana Vijay, Manvanth Kumar L, Madhav Tiwari