Is Rishabh Pant the right choice for Delhi’s Captaincy? Ricky Ponting answers: Delhi Capitals’ head coach Ricky Ponting came to rescue skipper Rishabh Pant after his strategic blunders denied his team’s entry to the IPL 2022 playoffs. Ponting backed Pant for the captaincy and said the wicketkeeper is still young and is learning different aspects of the captaincy.
Mumbai Indians, in the last match, blocked Delhi Capitals’ entry to the IPL 2022 playoff after unleashing their clinical performance. Rishabh Pant did a few blunders in the match for which he paid a huge price as well.
First, Pant dropped Dewald Bravis in 11.5 overs. Though Bravis didn’t do a lot of damage even after getting a life, however, the situation could have been different had Pant grabbed that dolly off Kuldeep Yadav.
In 14th over, when Mumbai were well away from the target, Pant refused to take a review against Tim David, who had just arrived in the middle. Even though Pant was convinced that Tim David has nicked the ball, seeing his teammates undisturbed he opted against going for the review.
What followed after that was a disaster for the Delhi Capitals as Tim David wreaked havoc and snatched victory from the opponents.
Delhi head coach Ricky Ponting came to rescue Rishabh Pant after questions were bombarded about whether choosing Rishabh Pant over Shreyas Iyer was the right captaincy move.
“Absolutely, no doubt in my mind that Rishabh even in the last season he was the right choice for captain. Rishabh did a terrific job with the team after he took over from Shreyas [Iyer] after he injured his shoulders,” Ponting said during the press conference after DC lost by five wickets against MI.
“…he is just a young man and still learning captaincy. Being captain of a T20 team, especially in IPL, which is a high-pressure tournament, is not an easy thing to do and unfortunately, every single thing you do will be scrutinised. He certainly got my full backing.”
Ponting further said that he is gutted to see Delhi not being able to enter the playoff.
“I feel pretty gutted that the game slipped through out of our hands, we didn’t close out the match in the last few overs.”
Even Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma backed Rishabh Pant and said that such fumbles happen a lot and Rishabh will come out stronger.
“He is a quality captain, we have seen it in the past season how he leads his team. Sometimes things don’t go your way, I have gone through such situations, such things happen on the ground, and sometimes things don’t pan out your way,” Rohit Sharma said.
“He can take a lot of learning and try and keep things simple, he has a great mind, he reads the game well from behind, and such fumbles can happen and it is important to not doubt yourself. He will come back strong,” he added.
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