Delhi Capitals (DC) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) don’t have your usual sporting rivalry. Instead, it can be described as sort of an awkward relationship.

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KKR’s biggest legend, Gautam Gambhir, left the franchise in 2018, categorically telling the owners that he didn’t want to be retained. He then joined DC (who were called Delhi Daredevils at the time) and suggested it was always a part of his plans to come back to his home franchise and lead them.

When that didn’t go well and DC’s fortunes dipped further, the franchise changed skippers mid-way through the season and gave the reins to Shreyas Iyer. The middle-order batter showed some silver linings by changing a few matches on his own, one of which involved him smashing a 93* (40) against, well, KKR.

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But, ironically, all didn’t go well for him either. He was injured for the first half of IPL 2021 and DC made Rishabh Pant the captain. When Shreyas returned for the second half after the Covid-19 break, DC did the most awkward thing by sticking with the new captain instead of going back to the guy who led them in their toughest time.

Now, in IPL 2024, both Gambhir and Shreyas are in the KKR camp as mentor and captain respectively. For them, it would be like going back to a chapter of their lives that they would have wanted to forget like a bad dream.

But KKR haven’t been innocent in this regard either and they have faced the consequences of it too. Kuldeep Yadav, their best gift to India alongside Suryakumar Yadav, was forced to the bench for weeks after a few bad games and ultimately released in 2022. He joined DC and in the three matches against KKR since then, he has 10 wickets at an average of 6.40 – his best record against any team in the IPL.

As a result, DC have won all three of their last matches against KKR. Most of their current players too, including Prithvi Shaw and David Warner, have excellent records against the two-time champions, who have looked weirdly deflated in these contests.

Now, when the two teams meet in Vizag, DC’s adopted home for the first few games of IPL 2024, the Gambhir and Shreyas partnership will want to tackle that awkwardness. And they’ll feel confident about that because of their set-up too.

KKR are one of the two unbeaten teams in the tournament and thanks to Andre Russell’s form, the emergence of Harshit Rana and Phil Salt, and an overall ability to adapt in the team (which they showed by becoming the first team to win an away game in IPL 2024) make them look like early challengers for the title.

DC are different. Despite the win versus CSK, they look like a team designed to succeed only on tracks with a lot of help for their pacers. And despite Rishabh Pant’s success in the previous match, their middle-order doesn’t encourage confidence.

It’s an awkward skill-battle with a ton of emotions in play — the perfect advertisement for the IPL.

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