Fizz included in Delhi XI against Gujarat

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman was named in the Delhi Capitals' playing XI for their Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Gujarat Titans at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday.

The Fizz, who had played in Bangladesh's T20I opener in the tow-match series against the UAE in Sharjah on Saturday, was allowed to join the Delhi camp after the first match by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. 

Mustafizur was Bangladesh's most economical bowler in the Sharjah encounter, claiming two wickets for just 17 runs in his four overs.

Interestingly, the 28-year-old had gone unsold in this year's IPL auction despite a base price of Rs 2 crores. However, following the exit of several overseas players amid rising political tensions between India and Pakistan, Delhi picked up Mustafizur for Rs 6 crores to bolster their pace attack for the remainder of the tournament.

The IPL governing body confirmed Mustafizur's addition to the Delhi squad in a press release issued last Wednesday. At the time, the pacer was on national duty with Bangladesh in the UAE.

Although there were initial doubts over the availability of a no-objection certificate (NOC), the BCB cleared the way by issuing one on Friday. The NOC allows Mustafizur to participate in the IPL for one week -- from Sunday, May 18 to Saturday, May 24.

This marks Mustafizur's second stint with Delhi Capitals, having previously played for the franchise during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In his IPL career so far, he has featured in 57 matches, taking 61 wickets at an average of 28.88 and an economy rate of 8.14.

Delhi Capitals: 1 Faf du Plessis, 2 Abhishek Porel, 3 Sameer Rizvi, 4 KL Rahul (wk), 5 Axar Patel (c), 6 Tristan Stubbs, 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Vipraj Nigam, 9 T Natarajan, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mustafizur Rahman. Impact Subs: Chameera, Atal, Nair, Vijay and Tiwari.

Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill (c), 2 Sherfane Rutherford, 3 Jos Buttler (wk), 4 Shahrukh Khan, 5 Rahul Tewatia, 6 Rashid Khan, 7 Kagiso Rabada, 8 Arshad Khan, 9 R Sai Kishore, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Prasidh Krishna. Impact Subs: Sai Sudharsan, Washington, Lomror, Rawat and Shanaka.