Tushar Deshpande IPL 2020: Why is Harshal Patel not playing today’s IPL 2020 match vs Rajasthan Royals?

Harshal Patel not playing: Delhi Capitals have left out their Indian fast bowler despite him doing well in IPL 2020 so far.

During the 30th match of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals in Dubai, Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer has won the toss and chose to bat.

“We will bat first. It’s been dry and like we saw the other games, it’s holding a bit. We want to approach every game positively and we got really good bowling attack to execute our plans. We got good back-ups who can come and perform, we are definitely missing Rishabh Pant,” Iyer said during the toss.

Much like Iyer, Rajasthan Royals captain Steven Smith also expressed his desire of wanting to bat first. The Australian player also confirmed that they will be taking the field with the same team.

“I was gonna bat as well. Hopefully we can bowl well, restrict them and chase it later on. It’s obviously used wicket and hopefully we will put some pressure with the ball. We are playing the same team,” Smith said during the toss.

Why is Harshal Patel not playing today’s IPL 2020 match vs RR?

Talking about the changes for Capitals, Iyer confirmed that they have handed a debut to fast bowler Tushar Deshpande who has replaced Harshal Patel in the Playing XI.

While Iyer wasn’t asked the reason behind dropping Patel, one feels it is Delhi’s ploy to test their Indian pacers after giving opportunities to Mohit Sharma, Avesh Khan, Ishant Sharma and Patel. In four IPL 2020 matches, Patel had picked three wickets at an average of 42, an economy rate of 9 and a strike rate of 28.

Deshpande, 25, plays domestic cricket for Mumbai and was bought by Delhi for his base price of INR 20 lakh. In 20 T20s since his debut in 2015, the right-arm pacer has picked 31 wickets at an average of 17.93, an economy rate of 7.98 and a strike rate of 13.4.

In the last season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Deshpande’s nine wickets in five T20s had come at an average of 14.77, an economy rate of 7.18 and a strike rate of 12.3.