Ravichandran Ashwin’s Punjab vs Gautam Gambhir’s Delhi, Cricket Score, Match 2, India T20 League 2018, Latest Updates: Punjab win by 6 wickets

Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Indian T20 League 2018. Match 2 of the tournament sees Ravichandran Ashwin‘s Punjab take on Gautam Gambhir‘s Delhi at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium. We will be bringing you the live updates, interesting tweets and stat facts from the cyberspace. Punjab had retained only player from their side before the auctions  – Akshar Patel. Ashwin has a task on his hand to captain a side that comprises of exciting young performers and international stars. However, having an heavyweight team, Ashwin and the coaching staff will be in a serious dilemma to choose a XI from the powerpacked unit. 

Punjab will be without the services of Aaron Finch, who is getting married on Sunday, for the opening match. Punjab still have plenty of reliable batters in their side – Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, David Miller, Yuvraj Singh, Marcus Stoinis and likes. Delhi had retained Chris Morris, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer ahead of the auctions. At the time of the auctions, Delhi picked the players wisely, including the return of their captain Gambhir.

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But they will be entering the first game of the tournament without Glenn Maxwell, who is away for Finch’s wedding. Yet, Delhi have Colin Munro, Jason Roy and likes to boost the batting line-up. As for the bowlers, Delhi have already dealt with their first blow with Kagiso Rabada ruled out of the tournament and Liam Plunkett coming in as replacement.

Delhi also have a blend of young and experienced spinners with Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane in the side. Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav, Trent Boult and others complete the bowling unit. Punjab are ahead of Delhi when it comes to head to head record (11:9). This could be and opportunity for both the sides to improvise their game with a well-balanced unit.

Squads:

Delhi team: Gautam Gambhir (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Naman Ojha (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris, Glenn Maxwell, Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Dan Christian, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Trent Boult, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sayan Ghosh.

Punjab team: Ravichandran Ashwin (c), KL Rahul (wk), Akshdeep Nath (wk), Akshar Patel, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, Chris Gayle, David Miller, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Manoj Tiwary, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Zadran, Barinder Sran, Andrew Tye, Ben Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar.