DC vs SRH: Revealed - Why is Ishant Sharma not playing today's IPL 2024 match and who has replaced him?

After registering two thumping wins in their last two games, Delhi Capitals will be eyeing another crucial win tonight against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Both teams are up against each other in the 35th game of the ongoing IPL 2024.

After managing to win just one of their first five games, DC have revived their playoffs hopes with two wins in a row. They got back to winning ways with a six-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants in their own backyard. It was followed by another impressive win away from home as they thrashed Gujarat Titans by six wickets in Ahmedabad.

DC became the first team to bowl out Gujarat Titans for less than 100 runs in the IPL as they bowled them out for just 89 runs before chasing down the total inside nine overs. With the momentum on their side, DC will be eyeing their fourth win in IPL 2024 although it won't be easy against Sunrisers Hyderabad who have been in great form as well.

And DC's task has been made tougher by the absence of Ishant Sharma. The veteran pacer is not a part of the playing eleven for the game against SRH at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Speaking at the toss, DC captain Rishabh Pant confirmed the development and revealed the reason as well.

Ishant Sharma unavailable:

Rishabh Pant revealed that Ishant Sharma would miss the DC vs SRH game due to a back spasm. The wicketkeeper-batsman revealed that the senior batsman suffered the niggle just five minutes before the toss. South Africa pacer Anrich Nortje has replaced him in the playing eleven. In another change, Lalit Yadav has replaced Sumit Kumar in the team.

"We're going to bowl first. Wicket looks pretty good, we would like to chase because we are playing more as a batting unit. We have more batters. Maybe there will be dew. The only thing we said is "stay in the contest".

"Yes they've been playing really good cricket but you can't let them get away with it. Ground doesn't matter, end of the day you have to play good cricket. We're looking to improve each and every match. Instead of Sumit, Lalit comes in. Instead of Ishant, who had a back spasm just 5 minutes back, Nortje comes in," said Pant.

Sunrisers Hyderabad XI: 1 Travis Head, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Aiden Markram, 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 Abdul Samad, 6 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 7 Shahbaz Ahmed, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mayank Markande, 11 T Natarajan

Delhi Capitals XI: 1 David Warner 2 Jake Fraser-McGurk 3 Abishek Porel, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Lalit Yadav, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Mukesh Kumar, 11 Khaleel Ahmed.