KL Rahul, the former captain of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), will now represent Delhi Capitals (DC), while Rishabh Pant, IPL's most expensive auction signing for LSG, will take on his former franchise, DC. Adding to the excitement, the two will face off in their season opener on Monday evening in Visakhapatnam.

The match between Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants will start at 7:30 pm local time. 

Team News and Likely XIIs

Rahul joined the team on the eve of the match in Visakhapatnam but may not be available due to personal reasons. If he is absent, DC have a ready replacement in Karun Nair, who is coming off an impressive domestic white-ball season. Meanwhile, Jake Fraser-McGurk, a standout performer in IPL 2024, has struggled in T20s since, managing only 188 runs in ten BBL innings for Melbourne Renegades, with 95 of them coming in a single knock.

Delhi Capitals (probable):

1. Jake Fraser-McGurk, 2. Faf du Plessis, 3. Abishek Porel, 4. KL Rahul (wk), 5. Tristan Stubbs, 6. Axar Patel (capt), 7. Ashutosh Sharma, 8. Sameer Rizvi/Mohit Sharma, 9. Kuldeep Yadav, 10. Mitchell Starc, 11. T Natarajan, 12. Mukesh Kumar

LSG have added Shardul Thakur as an injury replacement for Mohsin Khan, but they still face major setbacks. Key Indian pacers Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, and Akash Deep—who form the core of their fast-bowling attack—are all recovering from injuries.

Lucknow Super Giants (probable):

1. Yuvraj Chaudhary, 2. Mitchell Marsh, 3. Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 4. Nicholas Pooran, 5. Ayush Badoni, 6. David Miller, 7. Abdul Samad, 8. Shahbaz Ahmed, 9. Rajvardhan Hangargekar, 10. Ravi Bishnoi, 11. Shamar Joseph, 12. Prince Yadav