The Indian Premier League 2023 season is almost here and will begin in less than a week. Once again, all ten teams will fight for the famous prize. This season, the tournament will revert to its traditional home-and-away format, with 12 games spread around the country over the course of two months.
The IPL 2023 season will begin in Ahmedabad with an exciting match between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. The Delhi Capitals, one of the few clubs yet to win the coveted trophy, will kick off their IPL 2023 campaign a day later with an away encounter against the Lucknow SuperGiants.
Rishabh Pant, Delhi’s customary captain, will be absent. He was involved in a vehicle accident in December and is still recovering from it. In fact, the Indian will be unavailable for most of the year. As a result, David Warner, who previously led Sunrisers Hyderabad to IPL success in 2016, has been elected captain in his place.
In an interview with Star Sports before the start of the 2023 season, Kaif named Warner as Delhi’s ‘X factor’ for the season, noting that the Australian never gets the respect he deserves despite being an IPL veteran.
“The team’s strength for me, I’ll always say is Warner. He is the kind of player that whenever he’s in form, he can win matches single-handedly. Warner probably never gets the credit he deserves but he’s proven to be a legendary batter in IPL history. He has understood the Indian conditions supremely well. He’s been playing in India for a while. So for me Warner is the X factor”,
he said.
Warner’s return to the Delhi franchise after 13 years was a homecoming for him last year. The Australian began his IPL career with Delhi in 2009 before moving on to the Sunrisers. In the IPL 2022 season, he scored 432 runs for Delhi, including five fifties with a strike rate of 150.52.
He has been an X factor for the T20 World Cup-winning Australian side in 2021. He can lead the Capitals for their maiden IPL title this season.
