New Delhi, April 12 : A lack of stability in the previous three-year IPL cycle prevented the Delhi Capitals (DC) from being considered as serious title contenders. But a near-complete overhaul before and during the mega-auction has resulted in DC emerging as the most balanced team in IPL 2025.

Moreover, the Axar Patel-led side holds the unique distinction of remaining undefeated in the competition. Now, on return to their original home turf, the Arun Jaitley Stadium, DC will be aiming to extend its winning juggernaut when it faces Mumbai Indians (MI) on Sunday evening.

What has worked wonders for DC has been the experienced players and youngsters complimenting each other to make the team win. While Axar and Kuldeep Yadav have been proficient, young leg-spin all-rounder Vipraj Nigam has been a great find for the franchise.

Someone like Mitchell Starc has chipped in with valuable contributions, while KL Rahul has undoubtedly been their best batter by smashing back-to-back fifties both as an opener and middle-order batter while finding good support from Tristan Stubbs.

Though DC's overall batting and bowling run rate (9.9 and 8.8 respectively) has been healthy, the side still needs to sort some chinks in their armour, as per statistics from Cricket-21 show. DC have just one half-century amongst their first-choice top-order of Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis and Abishek Porel, resulting in their batting run-rate in power-play being 8.3, the second-lowest in this phase for any team in IPL 2025.

In their six-wicket win over RCB, Starc and Axar were smashed for 30 and 16 runs respectively in their one over each in power-play, taking DC's economy rate to 9.7 in power-play. If DC manage to sort their chinks out against MI, they will undisputedly become the team to beat in the competition.

Meanwhile, MI have stood up to their reputation of making slow starts in the competition, as seen from their four defeats in five matches so far. But with the mid-way phase of the competition coming up, the Hardik Pandya-led side will be fully aware that every game from now onwards holds huge importance if they are to enter the playoffs.

Though they welcomed back Jasprit Bumrah in their home game against RCB, it wasn't the magic pill MI needed to get a win. MI's issues literally start with their power-play performances in both batting and bowling, a fact duly acknowledged by head coach Mahela Jayawardene after their 12-run loss to RCB.

Their batting power-play run-rate is 9.1, but the most worrying aspect is MI losing 10 wickets in the first six overs ' tied with Chennai Super Kings and second only to Sunrisers Hyderabad (12). Rohit Sharma is enduring a lean run of form while barring Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, none of them have a settled batting position.

In bowling, things aren't that great for MI in power-play. The side has an economy rate of 10.36, which makes them the third-most expensive bowling unit in the first six overs of this season. Moreover, they have managed to pick only six wickets in the phase, which is the second lowest in the competition.

One would hope that with Bumrah's successful return to competitive cricket, where he showed signs of his usual sharpness, MI manage to make early inroads if they are to save themselves from a loss and stop the relentless DC winning juggernaut, especially with the pitch's nature still a mystery to both teams.

Squads

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (c), Faf du Plessis, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Mitchell Starc, Vipraj Nigam, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, Karun Nair, T. Natarajan, Darshan Nalkande, Dushmantha Chameera, Donovan Ferreira, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, and Madhav Tiwari.

Mumbai Indians: Hardik Pandya (c), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ryan Rickelton, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Shrijith Krishnan, Bevon Jacobs, Will Jacks, Mitchell Santner, Raj Angad Bawa, Vignesh Puthur, Corbin Bosch, Karn Sharma, Deepak Chahar, Ashwani Kumar, Reece Topley, PV Satyanarayana Raju, and Arjun Tendulkar.

Match starts at 7:30 pm on Star Sports (TV) and JioHotstar (mobile).

/IANS