New Delhi, Apr 13 (UNI) In a major setback for Delhi Capitals, experienced opener Faf du Plessis was ruled out of Sunday's clash against Mumbai Indians due to injury. Skipper Axar Patel, confirming the development at the toss, said the team would bowl first in what is the first IPL match at this venue this season.

"We'll bowl first. We're chasing well, and since it's the first game here, we don't really know how the pitch will behave. The numbers from the past don’t matter much," Axar said. "The challenge is to stick to our plans and be brave, even if you get hit for a six. Faf is injured," he added, without elaborating on the extent of the South African's injury.

Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya, under scrutiny after a spate of poor results, chose to remain optimistic. "Conversations are about where we are making mistakes. There’s no lack of experience in this group. We're not far from having a good game. We're trying not to hit the panic button. Panicking doesn't help. We don’t have much margin of error, hope everything comes good tonight," he said.

Mumbai have named an unchanged XI.

Playing XIs:

Delhi Capitals: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abhishek Porel, KL Rahul (w), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel (c), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (w), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah

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