Delhi Capitals have so far endured a tough IPL 2023 season. Having known that the team would be playing the season without their first-choice skipper Rishabh Pant, the responsibility to fill in the shoes was big but with capable members like Prithvi Shaw lying in the squad there was no point to panic for the franchise. However, as the season progressed Shaw’s failures started to hurt Delhi Capitals to the extent that he was dropped in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Ricky Ponting, who often speaks highly of Prithvi Shaw, expressed his criticism of the player this time. Ponting, as the head coach of DC, isn’t impressed with Shaw’s performance with the bat and has hinted the “40-odd runs” in 6 matches from the player isn’t acceptable. The Australian great though also reiterated the ability Shaw possesses but made his vision about compiling a winning combination clear. While ahead of the season, Prithvi Shaw and David Warner’s pair touted as the most explosive opening pair but the on-paper X factor for Delhi Capitals hasn’t paid dividends on the field.
Ricky Ponting makes scathing attack on Prithvi Shaw
“I think it’s 13 games (considering IPL 2022 as well) since Prithvi has made a 50 opening the batting for the Delhi Capitals. There are a lot of other players at the top of the order with other teams that are playing a whole lot better than Prithvi,” Ponting told the media ahead of the side’s reverse fixture against SRH.
“Prithvi at his absolute best… we know he’s a match-winner. That’s one of the reasons that he’s a retained player because we know if he bats a certain amount of balls, we win about 95% of the games,” Ponting said. “But so far this season, he hasn’t been able to produce,” he further added.
“I think the six games that he played was just over 40-odd runs, so that’s not what we require right now. So is it a tough decision to leave him out but hopefully the team that we put on the park tomorrow can go win another game for us,” said the head coach.
So far, Delhi Capitals have played 7 matches and have lost 5 matches. The only positivity the team could take is that they won the last two matches. DC will face SRH today. The match is scheduled for a 7:30 PM IST start.
