The newly appointed head coach of IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils, Ricky Ponting is least bothered about the dismal record of the team over the course of the last ten editions of the tournament.
He is of the opinion that a “fresh group” of players have it in them to win their maiden title of the season. Daredevils qualified for the semi-finals twice in the first three seasons. They did make it to the playoffs during the 2012 season, but the elusive title dreams were still far away.
Speaking for the first time getting appointed as the head coach of the franchise Ponting promised an exciting brand of cricket from his team.
Under Ponting, Australia won the 2003 and 2007 World Cup titles. In the IPL, he won the tournament as a player in 2013 and as a coach of the Mumbai Indians in 2015.
“I have told this to the management. I don’t care about the past. We have got a fresh group capable of winning the IPL. It is my job; management’s as well as the players to give the best crack possible. I can assure you the boys are going to be well prepared and if they can execute their plans on the field, there is no reason why we can’t win,” Ponting was quoted as saying during a media interaction.
Ponting feels the talk of Daredevils setting out an aggressive approach like Ponting is simply overrated. Even the players have spoken on getting the taste of Ponting’s aggression. When asked about the same he said,
“If they think I have been aggressive so far, I have not even started yet (drawing laughter). I have tried to be more motivational more than anything else. Tried to sort of get my point across that how important team culture and the environment is,” said Ponting who joined the team last week.
“I understand there is already a lot of talk about aggressive cricket just because I am the coach. Actually, we have not even spoken about it till now. We have spoken about playing high-intensity cricket with a never say die attitude. Anyway, when you talk about aggression, you mean whatever you can do to win games.”
Ponting feels the Gautam Gambhir-led squad has an ideal mix of youth and experienced campaigners. Both Gambhir and Ponting have a similar sort of an attitude, and Ponting feels it will definitely work in favour of Delhi.
“I think our natural instincts (is to play hard) is to get ourselves into a fight and hopefully win it. When I say fight, it is the battle on the field. We are both batsmen and want to win the competition against the bowlers, against the opposition. I love seeing that out in the players. We will balance ourselves each other really well. It will be nice if we are able to bestow that same spirit upon the players,” he said.
Gambhir too was excited to spend his time with Ponting.
“I started with Delhi, and it is always great to come back to a place where you started. Hopefully, we can the title this time; we have got the team that can win. Hopefully, I can finish my career here,” said the captain who led KKR to the title twice.
“It is a fresh start. The moment we start winning games, people will start believing in us.”
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