It is a do-or-die clash for the Delhi Capitals against Mumbai Indians with their season on the line but even before the start of the match they have been dealt a huge blow with their skipper Axar Patel being unavailable for selection on the all-important night. In his absence, 40-year old South African has been given the captaincy for the first time in the season. Faf du Plesis has been the captain previously in 42 IPL games winning 21 of them with a win percentage of 50%. However, he has only captained RCB in the IPL and this will be the first time he will be captaining any other team in the league. So far in the season, du Plesis has not had the best time with the bat in this season having played 7 games and scoring 173 runs at a strike rate of 122.70. DC would be hoping that the captaincy brings the best out of him in a must-win scenario. Why is Axar Patel not playing against MI? Replacement skipper Faf du Plesis informed at the toss that Axar Patel has been sick since the last couple of days due to a flu and hence would not be playing today. Here were his words at the coin toss with Ravi Shastri - "Unfortunate for him, really sick in the last two days, down with flu, so we wish him all the best. He's been excellent for us this season, and we'll definitely miss him today." Also Read | IPL 2025 Match 63 Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals – Toss Update & Playing XI While Axar Patel has not been at his best with the ball in this season picking up just 5 wickets in 12 games, he is DC's fourth-leading run-scorer of the season with 263 runs at a strike rate of 157. du Plesis acknowledged the fact that Axar is equivalent to two players with his all-round skills and while they might not have a like-for-like replacment for him but hoped that his replacement Madhav Tiwari, a seam all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh who made his debut earlier in the season, will do a good job.