In a bid to turn around their season, Delhi Capitals (DC) have made three changes to their playing XI for their 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Friday (May 1), with the big change being the absence of David Miller as Mitchell Starc returned to the playing XI for the first time this season.
Pathum Nissanka and Ashutosh Sharma were also back in the lineup. They replaced Miller, Dushmantha Chameera, and Sahil Parakh as Axar Patel lost the toss. Riyan Parag won the toss and revealed that Rajasthan Royals (RR) bat first in a surprise move.
Why Is David Miller Not Playing?
Miller is not playing for the Capitals, and Axar revealed it was a tactical call at the toss. The DC skipper stated that the 19-year-old Parakh missed out due to a neck sprain. The left-hander made his debut in DC’s loss against RCB and made a two-ball duck. He has a neck sprain.
Axar claimed that due to his absence, DC had to play Nissanka as KL Rahul’s opening partner. This meant Miller had to miss out as the visitors did not have another overseas slot, with Tristan Stubbs, Starc, and Kyle Jamieson also in the playing XI. Although the Capitals have Abhishek Porel and Prithvi Shaw in their ranks, they still decided to bring back Nissanka to open the innings.
Miller joined DC ahead of the 2026 season after being purchased for ₹2 crores in the auction. He featured in all eight games for the Delhi-based team so far and made 123 runs in eight matches (4 innings) at an average of 41.00 and a strike-rate of 148.53.
On the other hand, the Royals made just one change with Ravi Bishnoi replacing Yash Raj Punia. Meanwhile, Shubham Dubey was included in the playing XI, while Dasun Shanaka dropped into the impact sub list.
DC Playing XI: KL Rahul(w), Pathum Nissanka, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel(c), Ashutosh Sharma, Kyle Jamieson, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan
DC Impact Sub Nominations: David Miller, Vipraj Nigam, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, Auqib Nabi Dar
RR Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel(w), Riyan Parag(c), Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubham Dubey, Jofra Archer, Ravi Bishnoi, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma.
RR Impact Sub Nomination: Adam Milne, Dasun Shanaka, Ravi Singh, Yash Raj Punja, Tushar Deshpande
