Suryakumar back in mix as MI, Delhi Capitals desperate to arrest IPL slide

Mumbai: A fit-again Suryakumar Yadav will be expected to immediately deliver the goods when faltering Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals lock horns in a bid to arrest their slide in their Indian Premier League clash here on Sunday.

With three losses in a row, MI are languishing at the bottom whereas Delhi Capitals have spiralled down to the ninth spot in the 10-team points table following a 106-run hammering in their last match. If MI have once again made a characteristic start of falling into a hole with a string of defeats, the misfiring Delhi Capitals have had a similar fate suffering three losses from four outings and are under pressure to bounce back.

Suryakumar’s potential return to action will keep him at the cynosure since the T20 World Cup follows this iteration of IPL immediately and his form and fitness will be crucial for the Indian campaign.

Having spent the last three months nursing an ankle injury and recovering from a surgery for sports hernia, the world’s premier T20 batter Suryakumar hit the ground running with his first training session here at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.

Along with strength and mobility exercises, Suryakumar batted without any visible discomfort to get back in the groove and gear up to come to the rescue of his struggling teammates, who have collectively failed in all departments.

At the top, both Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan have looked promising but neither has notched up a big score yet. The same can be said about the other Indian batters such as Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir, who, irrespective of how appealing they have looked in the middle, are yet to deliver a match-winning

performance.