Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins have returned to action through the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) with their respective franchises, while another Australian star, Mitchell Starc, is yet to play his first match in IPL 2026 for the Delhi Capitals (DC). After the horror show against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Arun Jaitley StadiumDC captain Axar Patel provided updates on Starc’s availability.
Speaking after DC’s loss against the defending champion, the DC captain informed that Australian quick Mitchell Starc has joined them and received the No Objection Certificate (NOC) required for the IPL 2026 season as well. Starting next month, Mitchell Starc is expected to play for the Delhi-based franchise. However, Mitchell Starc’s involvement will remain subject to workload management.
When will Mitchell Starc be available to play for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2026?
“Yes, Mitchell Starc has joined. He has the NOC from 1, so he can play after that. His workload is being monitored. Whenever he is available, we will look to play him,” Axar Patel said during the post-match press conference.
Against the local team, Capitals of DelhiRCB pacer Josh Hazelwood was firing all guns, as was Bhuvneshwar Kumar. With these two pacers at the peak of their form, RCB reduced DC to 9 for 6. Within the 4th over of the first innings of the match, Delhi Capitals surprisingly lost all 6 of their batsmen and registered just 13 runs in the powerplay, the lowest total ever recorded in the powerplay in the history of the IPL.
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A night to forget in the capitals of Delhi.
The team that had scored 264 runs in 20 overs in their previous match was bowled out for just 75 runs. Abishek Porel and David Miller had offered some resistance against RCB’s ferocious bowling attack, but that too was not enough to take Delhi to a respectable total. While Porel got 30 of 33, for Miller it was 19 of 18.
Josh Hazlewood was named Player of the Match for his bowling figure of 4/12 in 3.3 overs. During his spell, the pacer dismissed KL Rahul, Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi and Abishek Porel. His bowling partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the wickets of debutant Sahil Parakh, Tristan Stubbs and Axar Patel. Kumar took those three wickets in 3 overs for an economy rate of 1.67.
Hazlewood and Kumar showed poetry in motion vs DC
The RCB duo showed class and well-controlled bowling during their respective spells. With due task, they fulfilled according to the plans against the respective batsmen. To dismiss debutant opener Parakh, Hazlewood bowled a precise yorker and to get rid of Rana, he bowled a short pitched ball.
With the new ball in hand, both experienced pacers were able to move the ball in both directions and achieved success. The steamy deliveries through the corridor of uncertainty did the rest of the work. Deliveries just outside the stump, away from the batsmen, got the edges.
RCB only needed 6.3 overs to claim the target total, which was 76. After the shock defeat, Delhi Capitals are now on 7th in it points table with 3 wins in 8 games.
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