Delhi Capitals vs Lucknow Super Giants, IPL 2025: Likely Playing XIs And Impact Substitutes Of Both Teams

Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants will be entering a new leadership phase when they square off against each other in their first match of IPL 2025 on Monday in Visakhapatnam. Delhi Capitals will be led by all-rounder Axar Patel while LSG will be playing under Rishabh Pant, who captained the Delhi-based franchise in 2024. During the mega auctions, LSG let go off their regular skipper KL Rahul and roped in wicketkeeper Pant at a record-breaking price of Rs 27 crore. On the other hand, Rahul joined Delhi for Rs 14 crore.

Ahead of the campaign opener, DC skipper Axar informed that Rahul is unlikely to play to first match as he is awaiting the birth of his first child with his wife and Bollywood actress Athiya Shetty.

LSG suffered a big blow as their pacer Mohsin Khan got ruled out due to an injury. All-rounder Shardul Thakur was named as his replacement. Apart from this, LSG will also be missing the services of their Indian fast bowlers -- Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan and Akash Deep, who are undergoing rehab for injuries.

LSG will be hopeful that their rich bank of Indian players mix up well with the overseas players to put together a string of wins. While Mitchell Marsh is available only as a specialist batter, LSG will hope for rich returns from the South African pair of David Miller and Aiden Markram.

In Nicholas Pooran, LSG have a perfect aggressive batter who can build innings as well as anchor chases, while Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad and Shahbaz Ahmed could be the other Indian batters.

DC, on the other hand, were spoilt for choices when it came to picking their captain as they also have Faf du Plessis apart from KL Rahul but the franchise opted for all-round Axar Patel, whose career graph has been on a rise.

Overall,