Delhi Daredevils are taking on Kings XI Punjab at the latter’s turf in Mohali. This is Day 2 of Indian Premier League 11 after Dwayne Bravo lit up the opening night with a blitzkrieg 68 off 30 balls to guide Chennai Super Kings home in the opener. It is an unfamiliar line-up for both KXIP and DD as a lot of changes took place at the auction table. For example, Gautam Gambhir will captain Delhi Daredevils and Ravichandran Ashwin will lead Kings XI Punjab.
Ashwin has hardly ever captained a serious side and to suddenly lead a major franchise will not be an easy task for him. For that matter, Ashwin, at the age of 31, is an experienced, world-class bowler. But did you know he has pipped Ajinkya Rahane’s record? Ashwin has played the most number of IPL matches before becoming the captain. He pipped Rahane who became the captain of Rajasthan Royals after Steve Smith had to back out of IPL11 after the ball-tampering saga.
Most matches played before captaining an IPL side:
111 – RAVICHANDRAN ASHWIN*
97 – Ajinkya Rahane
92 – Murali Vijay
84 – Rohit Sharma
77 – Zaheer Khan #KXIPvDD— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) April 8, 2018
Ashwin has also become the 46th captain of IPL.
Another big record that was created in this match was that Mujeeb Zadran of Afghanistan became the youngest player to feature in IPL.
Youngest players make an IPL debut:
17y 11d – MUJEEB UR RAHMAN*
17y 177d – Sarfraz Khan
17y 179d – Pradeep Sangwan
17y 199d – Washington Sundar
17y 247d – Rahul Chahar #IPL2018 #KXIPvDD— #IPL2018 #IPL2018 (@VIVOIPL_T20) April 8, 2018
For Yuvraj Singh, this is an important match as he is coming back to his known territories.
