Delhi Capitals have won the toss and chosen to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 31 of IPL 2026 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

Axar Patel extended his remarkable toss record, six consecutive calls won in IPL 2026, while Ishan Kishan extended a streak he would much rather forget, losing his seventh consecutive toss of the season. The two parallel streaks running in opposite directions add a curious subplot to a match that carries genuine table implications for both sides.

SRH vs DC: What Axar Patel and Ishan Kishan said at toss

Axar was in reflective mood at the toss, acknowledging a personal milestone along the way. “Thank you, I didn’t think I would play 100 matches for DC. Hopefully it’ll end up with a win tonight,” he said. He made one change, Nitish Rana comes in for Akib Nabi, a selection that adds batting depth and gives DC more flexibility in the middle order.

Kishan admitted the decision was not straightforward given the conditions. “It’s hard to decide, but I don’t think this is a similar wicket,” he said, referencing the surface that suited SRH’s chase in their previous match. Two changes for Hyderabad with Harsh Dubey returning to the bowling attack.

SRH vs DC: Where both sides stand and what tonight means

SRH enter the match in fourth place with six points from three wins, back-to-back victories against CSK and RR have given Kishan’s side real momentum after a difficult start.

Heinrich Klaasen sits at the top of the Orange Cap standings with 283 runs and has been the anchor that everything else is built around. Abhishek Sharma’s 15-ball fifty against CSK was the Powerplay statement of the season so far. The bowling has relied heavily on young domestic talent with Eshan Malinga emerging as their leading wicket-taker in the absence of injured overseas options.

Delhi sit fifth with six points from five matches, one game fewer than SRH, and returned to winning ways last time out, chasing 176 against RCB through a KL Rahul and Tristan Stubbs partnership that steadied a wobble before David Miller finished it off. Kuldeep Yadav and Axar as the spin combination have been the most economical middle-overs pairing in the competition.

SRH vs DC: The match context and predicted XIs

This is as close to a four-pointer as the league stage produces. An SRH win cements their top-four position and gives them three victories in a row.

A DC win leapfrogs them into fourth with a game in hand, making them arguably the tournament’s most efficient side at that point. The toss result, with DC bowling first on what Kishan suggested he would also have preferred to field on, may have already shifted the balance slightly.

With Pat Cummins still unavailable and Mitchell Starc yet to join the DC camp, both sides are operating without their most expensive overseas bowler, which makes the spin options and the domestic units pace the critical variables tonight.

SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora (wk), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivang Kumar, Harsh Dubey, Sakib Hussain, Eshan Malinga.

DC: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Rana, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel (c), Sameer Rizvi, Kuldeep Yadav, Lungi Ngidi, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.

SRH vs DC Impact Players

Delhi Capitals Impact subs: Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, Ashutosh Sharma, Tripurana Vijay, Auqib Nabi

Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact subs: Smaran Ravichandran, Praful Hinge, Liam Livingstone, Dilshan Madushanka, Harshal Patel