Shreyas Iyer, who was ruled out of cricket for a brief period due to an injury, is all set to get back on the field after being given clearance by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to play for the remaining matches of IPL.
Despite his return, however, it is being speculated that Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who replaced Shreyas Iyer as the skipper of Delhi Capitals, will continue to be the team’s captain for the remainder of IPL 2021.
Shreyas Iyer Is Fit Again And Ready To Get Back To Action But Rishabh Pant Will Continue Aa Skipper To Give Shreyas Iyer More Recovery Time
Rishabh Pant was made Delhi Capitals captain after usual leader Shreyas Iyer was ruled out of the IPL 2021 due to a shoulder injury he sustained during the ODI series against England. But IPL 2021 was postponed due to a bio bubble breach which will see Shreyas Iyer back in action.
A source was quoted as saying by a sports portal, “While it is great news that Shreyas Iyer is fit again and ready to get back to action, it is understood that the DC management wants to give him more time to recover. As a result, Pant will continue as captain, but only for the second half of IPL 2021.”
Rishabh Pant, the swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batsman, was one of the three players retained by Delhi ahead of the 2018 auction, and paid it back with a season, scoring close to 700 runs. While he missed out on the IPL Orange Cap but his batting was a bright spot for the Delhi Capitals, who went on to retain the youngster for the next two seasons, including for the IPL 2020.
Named skipper for the IPL 2021 following an injury to Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, who has 1 hundred and 12 IPL fifties to his name, is coming into this edition of the tournament on the back of a brilliant run of form in international cricket and will be looking to replicate the same for Delhi Capitals.
Shreyas Iyer Dislocated Shoulder While Fielding Against England In The 1st ODI In March 2021
Shreyas Iyer dislocated his shoulder while fielding against England in the first ODI in Pune on March 24. He had to leave the field right away and later underwent surgery that kept him away from the first session of the 14th edition of IPL before the tournament was suspended midway due to the breakout of Covid-19 inside the bio-bubble.
Speaking about his present condition, Shreyas Iyer had said, “Currently, I am feeling amazing, the journey was awesome, to be honest. I never hesitated for a while but right after the injury, I was sulking a bit and I didn’t know exactly what to do. I went into the dressing room and cried and it took me a while to digest it but yeah, at the end of the day, you need to go through all of it.”
Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was given the captaincy duties and he did well leading Delhi Capitals to the top of the points table with 6 wins in 8 matches before the tournament was suspended mid-season owing to the covid-19 outbreak amongst multiple franchises.
The Delhi Capitals qualified for the finals first time in IPL 2020 after twelve years of the start of this tournament and qualified for the IPL playoffs in 2019 for the first time in seven years. In IPL 2021, Delhi Capitals lost only to Rajasthan Royals-3 wickets and Royal Challengers Bangalore-1 run.
In the first leg, DC outplayed Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians, and Kolkata Knight Riders. They won both the encounters against Punjab Kings. For Delhi Capitals, Shikhar Dhawan played a leading role while batting. His powerful batting helped the team to win few games easily while chasing.
With 380 runs in 8 innings, the left-handed batsman is the highest run-getter in the tournament so far. In bowling, DC’s Avesh Khan showed a magnificent performance. The right-arm pacer picked 14 wickets in 8 games, emerging as the 2nd wicket-taker in the 1st leg of IPL 2021.