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Sharjah: The former England batsman will have to lead the franchise as he is out of the match against Bangalore with a finger injury in game two of the 2014 Pepsi Indian Premier League on Thursday.
Indian cricket stars will be seen at Sharjah stadium for the first time since the BCCI shunned the venue after the match-fixing scandal broke in 2000. Sharjah's image in front of Indians may have tarnished since then but the Guinness world record holder venue has its chance to showcase the superstars of world cricket with the likes of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers taking the field on Thursday.
The vice-captain wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik will lead against RCB.
Murali Vijay and Karthik could take up the top order responsibilities while Bengal's Manoj Tiwary presents a solid middle order option and Jharkhand's Saurabh Tiwary can be used as a floater. Quinton de Kock looks likely to come in for Pietersen.
Mohammad Shami and spinners Rahul Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem should be straighforward picks. Out of fast bowling allrounders like Nathan Coulter-Nile, Wayne Parnell and James Neesham, only two will get to play.
JP Duminy has been in consistent form with both bat and ball for South Africa and his athleticism on the field brings a lot of energy to Daredevils. His bowling is under-rated and his offspin can be quite handy in spin-friendly tracks.
On otherhand, in Royal Challengers Bangalore, after India's loss in the 2014 World Twenty20 final, Yuvraj will once again be the talking point as he teams up with skipper Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle. The pressure will be on Yuvraj to prove his record Rs 14 crore billing. RCB, though, will hope that Kohli, Gayle and de Villiers take the bulk of the pressure off him as they plan to take their team to 'gangnam' territory.
The inclusion of big hitting allrounder Albie Morkel just makes RCB's top seven a line-up to die for. However, their massive expenditures at the 2014 Player Auctions have left them with not the best of bowling options to choose from. As a result, their best bowling pick Mitchell Starc leads the bowling attack with Ashok Dinda and Varun Aaron for support.
Teams:
Delhi - Dinesh Karthik (Capt. & wk), Murali Vijay, Jean-Paul Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Shukla, Siddarth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ross Taylor, Milind Kumar, Wayne Parnell, HS Sharath, Jayant Yadav
Bangalore - Virat Kohli (Capt.), AB de Villiers (wk), Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel (wk), Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra, Yogesh Takawale, Sachin Rana
Pitch & condition
Weather: Mostly clear, sunny skies. Pitch: Spin friendly.
Stats and trivia
The head-to-head record between these teams stands at 5-5, with one game tied in 11 game.
Match facts
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Start time 1830 (1430 GMT, 2000 IST)
