The Delhi Capitals (DC) have had a disappointing season in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, as they are lying at the bottom of the points table with just two victories in seven matches.
Their batting has been a major cause for concern this year, especially the poor form of their star opener Prithvi Shaw. His performance in the 16th season of the cash-rich league has been lacklustre, having scored only 47 runs in six innings. The Capitals even tried him as an ‘Impact Player’, but the strategy didn’t work out for them.
No wonder that following his string of low scores, Shaw was eventually dropped from the playing XI during DC’s game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and he hasn’t made his comeback in the playing XI yet.
Regarding the decision to drop Shaw, DC head coach Ricky Ponting has admitted that the decision to drop Shaw was not an easy one, but he backed the move, stating that a lot of openers in other IPL franchises are performing better than Shaw.
Ahead of DC’s clash against SRH on Saturday, April 29, Ponting opened up on the development regarding Shaw and explained the whole scenario. He said: “I think it’s 13 games (including IPL 2022) 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 admitted that Shaw is a sure-shot match-winner, and that’s why he was retained, but he still needs to perform up to the desired expectations in the current season.
“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. But so far this season, he hasn’t been able to produce. I think the six games that he played was just over 40-odd runs, so that’s not what we require right now,” added Ponting.
