The mind games have begun ahead of the first qualifier in the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) that gets underway between defending champion Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals later on Thursday evening at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai (UAE).

Ahead of the IPL 2020 Qualifier 1, Delhi Capitals opener Shikhar Dhawan has fired the opening salvo on Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma by saying that his team could take advantage of the fact that the MI captain has not played many games in the build up to the knockouts and might have lost his form.

Dhawan said that while his opening partner in the Indian team was a very good player, he could have lost form due to the injury which ruled him out for a couple of league games at the business end of the tournament and his team could exploit that weakness in the all important IPL 2020 qualifier.

“Rohit is a very good player, and he hasn’t played many matches so I am not sure about his touch, and that means that we can definitely take advantage of it,” Dhawan said before Thursday’s encounter.

“My best wishes to him, but yes as opponents, we can take advantage of that for sure and make plans accordingly.

Speaking on India's upcoming tour of Australia after the IPL, Dhawan said that he would like to carry on his good form into the series against the Aussies Down Under. The DC opener added that he relished the challenge of playing in Australia and the IND vs AUS series will be a special one as it will be India's first international engagement after a long time

“Once you have got good scores, you want to carry that to the next series. I love playing in Australia. It’s a great place to play cricket. The pitches are good and I enjoy playing their bowling,” Dhawan, who has scored 525 runs in 14 innings so far, said

“It will be a special series as Indian team will be playing after a long time. I want to showcase my class,” said Dhawan, who has two hundreds and two fifties in his last five ODI appearances against Australia