Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting should be held responsible for his team’s continuous five losses in the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League. David Warner-led side is having a disastrous season as they were hammered in all the matches.
After their 5th loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Cricket-turned-commentator Virender Sehwag said that the coach should take responsibility for the loss, stating that Ponting has been given credit when Delhi Capitals have done well in the league, so he must take the blame for the loss.
“I think I said before that Punjab has passed on the axe to Delhi, so now the axe has reached Delhi. When a team losses, the coaches are credited, so when the team losses, they should be held responsible. Even though we said so many times that Ponting has done a brilliant job, and taken them to the finals, they now reach the playoffs almost every year. He took all those credits, now he has to take this credit as well,” Virender Sehwag said.
Coming into the match, Royal Challengers Bangalore batted first in the full-packed Chinnaswamy stadium, where Virat Kohli scored a fantastic half-century before he was dismissed by Lalit Yadav in a full-toss ball. At the mid-way of the innings, Faf-du Plessis-led side lost back-to-back wickets as they lost Harshal Patel, Glenn Maxwell, and Dinesh Karthik in quick succession, with youngsters Shabaz Ahmed and Anuj Rawat helping them to post a total of 174-6 wickets.
In the case of 175 runs, Delhi Capitals once again had a disastrous start as they lost their top order batters Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh, Yash Dhull, and their skipper David Warner fell cheaply inside the power-play. Manish Pandey was the only bright spot for the David Warner-led side as he scored a half-century before being dismissed by Wanindu Hasaranga taking them completely out of the game. On the bowling department, Royal Challengers Bangalore debutant Vyshak Vijay Kumar was impressive as he picked 3 wickets by giving just 20 runs in front of his home crowd.
The Big Responsibility Is Man-Management – Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag said that man-management is an important factor in IPL and the coach should try to give confidence to their players in the tournament added that Delhi Capitals have reached a point where they are confused about their playing combination and strategy on going into the tournament.
“This is not the Indian team where they take credit for the wins and the losses, someone else is blamed. There are zero roles of a coach in an IPL team. The big responsibility is man-management and giving the players that confidence, but in the end, a coach looks good only when the team performs well which Delhi hasn’t done it at all. I feel Delhi has reached that point where they are confused about what should they do to change their fortune,” Virender Sehwag added.
Delhi Capitals will have a 4-day break, before going into the next game as they will play two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders on their home ground in Arun Jaitley Stadium.