NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting feels his team needs to improve in all aspects of the game after its third defeat in five games in the ongoing Indian Premier League.
DC lost by 16 runs to Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday night to lie at the bottom half of the IPL table with just four points.
Ponting said it’s time DC start clicking as a unit in all aspects of the game.
“We haven’t had our full strength batting. Mitchell Marsh played his first game and probably didn’t quite fit the tempo of the game that we needed. Rovman Powell hasn’t fired so far in the middle order. So we need to fix some things and what we intended to do throughout the tournament,” Ponting said at the post-match press conference.
“There is definitely some areas for improvement with the bat and ball. In couple of overs, we absolutely have been blown out of the park. We need to get better in all aspects of the game.”
Ponting said getting the team combination right will be key for DC in their upcoming matches.
“The next two games are pretty important for us and we need to look at all aspects of our game, pick the right team and those 11 players we pick, need to stand up and get the job done,” the coach said.
The former Australia captain called on his top-order batters to stand up and take more responsibility.
“We want the guys to have the best opportunities to make big scores and obviously if you are batting in the top 4 in T20, you have got the best opportunity to make big scores,” said the batting legend.
“Prithvi (Shaw) has been playing exceptionally well, but if one of the top 4 go onto to make a big score of 80-plus, we know what will happen but that hasn’t happened for us so far.”
Ponting, though, was pretty impressed with Kuldeep Yadav’s performance so far in the tournament, saying the left-arm spinner is thriving in the DC environment.
“Kuldeep seems to be thriving in the environment that we are creating around him. I was very keen going into the auction to bring Kuldeep to Delhi Capitals. He wasn’t able to get the opportunities with KKR last season that he probably felt he should have got. Only 3-4 years ago, he was one of the leading spinners in IPL and was playing for his country, so all the skill and talent was there; we just needed build some fences around and make him feel at home and give him confidence and back his skills,” he said.
DC next play Punjab Kings in Pune on April 20.
—PTI

Press Trust of India