The Daredevils have the edge with South Africans Graeme Smith and Morne Morkel and Pakistanis Younis Khan and Kamran Akmal missing from the Rajathan Royals’ squad. The South Africans are playing in their domestic Twenty20 tournament while the Pakistanis are playing a home ODI series against Bangladesh.

The Daredevils too have a clutch of players missing from their ranks — A B de Villiers, Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik and his national team-mate Mohammad Asif.

A cocktail of cricket and entertainment it will be, with Warne lining up against his ex-team-mate Glenn McGrath, Munaf Patel and Mohammad Kaif locking horns with Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

“I think we have the balance in the side, we have players to cover any department whether batting or bowling.

Let the tournament start, I think we are one of the best sides,” Sehwag said while rubbishing suggestions that his side was one of the weakest.

Young blood

Apart from Sehwag, Gambhir and McGrath, Delhi have Kiwi Daniel Vettori, Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof and youngsters Manoj Tiwary and Pradeep Sangwan in their line-up.

Rajasthan Royals, on the other hand, will be hit hard by the absence of Smith, Younis and Akmal and it will be interesting to see how captain and coach Warne juggles his final XI.

It will also be interesting to see the form of the two captains Sehwag and Warne in the shortest format of the game, especially so for the latter.

Warne, who just retired from international cricket after captaining English county Hampshire, has long stopped playing the ODIs, and he will be severely tested in his bowling as well as fielding.

Teams (from): Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (Capt), Rajat Bhatia, AB de Villiers, Shikhar Dhawan, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir, Brett Geeves, Dinesh Karthik, Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof, Yo Mahesh, Mithun Manhas, Amit Mishra, Mohammad Asif, Yogesh Nagar, Pradeep Sangwan, Shoaib Malik, Mayank Tehlan, Manoj Tiwary, Daniel Vettori, Tejashwi Yadav. Coach: Greg Shipperd

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne (Capt), Aditya Angle, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Kaif, Kamran Akmal, Sumit Khatri, Taruwar Kohli, Justin Langer, Darren Lehmann, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Parag More, Morne Morkel, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Niraj Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Mahesh Rawat, Anup Revandkar, Dinesh Salunkhe, Jaydev Shah, Graeme Smith, Sohail Tanvir, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Younis Khan. Coach: Shane Warne.

PREVIEW

Delhi Daredevils vs
Rajasthan Royals,
8.00 pm, Delhi