The fixture is taking place at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday afternoon.

Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel explained the decision to bat first, citing the hot weather and the expectation that the pitch would deteriorate over time. “We will bat first. It’s hot, so we want to post a good total and defend it. The track will slow down,” he said at the toss.

He acknowledged that while the team has been competitive, they have struggled to capitalise during crucial moments. “All teams are playing well, we are also trying to play well, but we are not winning the crucial moments. We are making small mistakes. We need to work on that,” Patel added.

Axar also confirmed that Delhi Capitals made no changes to their playing XI for the match.

Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer stressed the importance of maintaining focus and discipline following the toss. “It’s important to stay in the moment. It was hot in that game. We need to follow the right habits. It has been going great. I would have loved to bowl. We are going with the same team,” he said.

The teams are as follows:

Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Pathum Nissanka, Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (captain), Nitish Rana, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.

Delhi Capitals (Impact Subs): Vipraj Nigam, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, Ashutosh Sharma, Auqib Nabi Dar.

Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Prabhsimran Singh (wicketkeeper), Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Punjab Kings (Impact Subs): Nehal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod.