IPL 2025: Kagiso Rabada returns as GT win toss and elect to bowl first against DC

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Kagiso Rabada has made a return for Gujarat Titans as captain Shubman Gill won the toss and elected to bowl first against Delhi Capitals in match 60 of the tournament at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday.

Second-ranked GT need just one more win to book their spot in the playoffs, while DC are at fifth place and must win all of their remaining games, starting from Sunday’s clash, to keep their faint hopes of entering the last four stage alive.

South Africa pacer Rabada had last played for GT in their clash against Mumbai Indians (MI) on March 29, before flying back home due to personal reasons. Later, it was announced that Rabada was serving a provisional one-month suspension for recreational drug use.

Rabada now comes into GT’s playing eleven in place of fellow South Africa pacer Gerald Coetzee, in what is his first game after suspension. “Not easy to start all over again, but good rest for our pacers, KG comes back, that's a positive for us. We've had a good run, but we have three games and we're looking to win all of them.”

“That's the thing with every match, we have to start fresh, our fielding hasn't been the best, we've worked hard on it. We're hoping that everyone will come back and perform, looks like a good wicket, plenty of high scores,” said Gill.

DC skipper Axar Patel said the side has made two changes – left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who picked up 2-17 in four overs in Bangladesh’s T20I win over UAE at Sharjah on Saturday, replaces Mitchell Starc, while Vipraj Nigam comes in for Madhav Tiwari.

“We too wanted to bowl first, but we'll now looks to post a good total. We're taking one game at a time, not thinking too far ahead, not thinking too much about qualification, just taking it one at a time. I respect his personal decision (on Starc pulling out), but I want players to be 100% fit, just think about the plans,” he said.

Sunday’s match is being played on pitch number four, which is made of black-soil. The square boundaries stand at 66 metres and 58 metres, while the straight boundary is at 71 metres.

Playing XIs

Delhi Capitals: Faf du Plessis (vice-captain), Abishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Sameer Rizvi, KL Rahul, Axar Patel (captain), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, T Natarajan, Kuldeep Yadav and Mustafizur Rahman

Impact Substitutes: Dushmantha Chameera, Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Tripurana Vijay and Madhav Tiwari

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (captain), Sherfane Rutherford, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Arshad Khan, R Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna

Impact Substitutes: B Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat and Dasun Shanaka

--IANS

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