Salt, who was secured by RCB for a massive ₹11.5 crore in the 2024 auction, has been pivotal in providing aggressive starts for his team. Across nine matches, he scored 239 runs, maintaining an average of 26.56 and an explosive strike rate of 168.31.
Why Phil Salt Is Not Playing In Today’s RCB vs DC IPL 2025 Match? Here’s The Reason
Royal Challengers Bengaluru were dealt a heavy setback ahead of their high-voltage IPL 2025 showdown against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday. Star opener and wicketkeeper Phil Salt was ruled out of the game due to illness, leaving a major gap at the top of RCB’s batting order.
Salt’s absence was confirmed by RCB skipper Rajat Patidar at the toss, where he announced that the English batter was down with fever. With the match holding huge stakes—winner claiming the top spot in the points table—Salt’s unavailability was a major blow. Patidar went on to win the toss and opted to bowl first against DC.
RCB Turn to Jacob Bethell as Replacement
Salt, who was secured by RCB for a massive ₹11.5 crore in the 2024 auction, has been pivotal in providing aggressive starts for his team. Across nine matches, he scored 239 runs, maintaining an average of 26.56 and an explosive strike rate of 168.31.
Explaining the decision at the toss, Patidar said, “We will bowl first. The wicket is quite good to bat on and I don’t think it’s going to change too much and we like to chase. It’s our first win at our home and we will try to continue playing good cricket. In every match, we are trying to improve, so we want to keep learning. (Jacob) Bethell has come in place of (Phil) Salt.”
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With Bethell stepping into the playing XI, RCB will hope he can fill the void left by Salt at the top of the order.
Captains Split on Toss Strategy
While RCB chose to chase, Delhi Capitals’ captain Axar Patel admitted he would have taken the opposite approach had he won the toss.
“That is an advantage too but if we had won the toss, I think we would have batted only and use the wicket in the second innings. In the last game, there was no dew but in the game against Mumbai, there was some dew. They (LSG) had two foreign batters at the top so I wanted to bowl against them. I was bowling with a good rhythm, the plan wasn’t to bowl four overs in a row but I kept bowling well so I continued with it. Faf (du Plessis) is back and the Impact player we will decide according to the situation,” said Axar.
Both teams are sitting near the top of the standings, making this clash crucial in the race for playoff spots.
Playing XIs for RCB vs DC
Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (C), Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Rajat Patidar (C), Virat Kohli, Jacob Bethell, Romario Shepherd, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal.
