IPL 2020: Blow for Delhi as Ishant Sharma likely to miss KXIP match

Ishant Sharma reportedly has suffered an injury ahead of Delhi Capitals' opening Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 match.

According to Cricbuzz, Ishant injured himself during a training session and could miss out on Delhi's match against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Sunday, which is the second fixture of IPL 2020. The opening match was played between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI), where the defending champions lost by five wickets to MS Dhoni's side.

The Cricbuzz report stated that Ishant injured his back on the eve of their first game in Dubai. The Indian fast bowler has a history of being injury-prone. Earlier this year, in January, Ishant was sidelined with an ankle injury. He underwent a thorough rehabilitation at Bangalore's National Cricket Academy (NCA). He returned to play a Test against New Zealand a month later before he injured the same ankle, which out his future in doubt.

Delhi Capitals (DC) and KXIP are yet to win the IPL title. While KXIP made it to the final in 2014, only to lose to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), DC made it to the playoffs last year for the first time since 2012.

Also Read: IPL 2020 Full Schedule: IPL Fixtures, Date, Time and Venue

Delhi, led by a young Shreyas Iyer, will hope to do better this year as it has a great squad featuring the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, West Indian Shimron Hetmyer, Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, Rishabh Pant, and Kagiso Rabada to name a few apart from the skipper himself.

So far, DC and KXIP have faced off for 24 times in the IPL and it is KXIP, who lead the head to head by 14-10.

Last season, with six wins and eight losses, KXIP finished sixth in the points table, while Delhi finished third, below MI and CSK. Delhi lost to CSK in the qualifier 2, before CSK were beaten by Mumbai in the final by one run. 

Also Read: IPL 2020 Points Table, Indian Premier League 2020 Team Rankings