In the Kl Rahul opening slot, Axar Patel Delhi’s need for the under Stubbs

DC lost their last match against RCB the other night, and that meant they have now slipped to fourth position in IPL 2025 points table. Their batting was rather ordinary, with the team scoring only 162. Bowling has been good overall, but then a collective effort is needed match-after-match; something they lacked in their last clash. Faf du Plessis was no good, KL Rahul and Karun Nair weren’t good enough too.

Now the team takes on KKR, and their batting woes could only increase vs spinners like Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine. InsideSport takes a look at DC predicted playing XI vs KKR.

Axar Patel Should Bat Below Tristan Stubbs

Although Axar Patel is the skipper of the DC side, and has been batting and bowling well, one does not understand why he bats at No. 4 or 5, before Tristan Stubbs? He has scored 189 runs in 9 matches at an average of 27 and a strike-rate of 156. While Stubbs has definitely been better with 217 in 9 matches at an average of 54, and a strike-rate of 164.

KL Rahul at Opening Slot Could be an Option

One major change that DC should be looking to make is, get KL Rahul to open. Look, Faf du Plessis and Karun Nair have returned with modest outings so far as openers. KL Rahul has been in brilliant form, scoring 364 runs in eight matches. He averages 60 and could be a perfect partner for Abhishek Porel.

Probable XI: Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma