Jaipur, Mar 28: Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant will be playing his 100th Indian Premier League (IPL) match for the franchise when he takes to the field against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Thursday, becoming the first player to do so for his team.

The attacking left-handed batter has been loyal to the Blue franchise since his IPL debut in 2016.

In 99 matches played for DC so far, Pant has scored 2,856 runs at an average of 34.40 and a strike rate of 147.90, with a century and 15 fifties in 98 innings. His best score is 128*. Pant is the highest run-getter for Delhi since its inception in 2008, with stars like David Warner (2,433 runs in 84 matches) and Virender Sehwag (2,382 runs in 87 matches) taking the other two spots in the top three.

After showing some promise as a young upstart in 2016 and 2017 seasons, scoring 198 runs in 10 innings and 366 runs in 14 games, respectively, Pant took the cricketing world by storm with a breakthrough 2018 season. In that season, Pant scored 684 runs in 14 matches at an average of 52.62 and at a massive strike rate of 173.60. He scored a century and five fifties, with the best score of 128*.

The left-hander's free-flowing 128* in 63 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), with 15 fours and seven sixes at a strike rate of over 203, is a career-highlight. With the southpaw coming in with his team at 43/3, he single-handedly took them to a match-winning 187/5

This knock was filled with audacious, never-seen-before sweeps, scoops and one-handed-sixes that became Pant's trademark shots in coming years.

During this knock, he notably decimated Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, smashing him for 43 runs in 11 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes.

He did not spare the T20 superstar spinner Rashid Khan either, scoring 27 runs off his 13 balls, with a six and four boundaries.

Pant was appointed as the captain of the franchise in 2021. As a captain, he has won 16 games, lost 14 games and one ended in a tie. He has a win percentage of 51.61. He was part of the 2020 DC team that went to the finals, but lost to the Mumbai Indians (MI) by five wickets.

Rishabh's made his comeback to the competitive cricket after December 2022 following a a life-threatening road accident against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and his comeback inning saw him score 18 in 13 balls, with two fours. The young wicketkeeper-batter will be raring to do much better this time around and entertain the Jaipur crowd.

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Nandre Burger, Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Shubham Dubey, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Prasidh Krishna, Donovan Ferreira, Abid Mushtaq, Kunal Singh Rathore

Delhi Capitals Squad: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ricky Bhui, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Abishek Porel, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Vicky Ostwal, Praveen Dubey, Jhye Richardson, Anrich Nortje, Prithvi Shaw, Lalit Yadav, Rasikh Dar Salam, Kumar Kushagra, Yash Dhull, Swastik Chikara.

(ANI)

Argus English: Odisha's Top English News Platform | Latest Breaking News, Politics, Sports & Live TV