Following his exit against CSK on Tuesday, Shikhar Dhawan was seen walking off the field (AFP). His performance has raised concerns for Ricky Ponting, who insists that Dhawan needs to be more proactive early on so that the burden of explosive hitting doesn't fall exclusively on Rishabh Pant.
Shikhar Dhawan needs to raise the stakes in the Powerplay overs as it won’t be workable for ishabh Pant to be the swashbuckler regular, feels Delhi Capitals mentor Ricky Ponting.
In their second IPL outing on Tuesday night, Delhi suffered a six-wicket defeat to the Chennai Super Kings. Dhawan's slow pace at the crease has become a point of contention, a trend that was evident even in their opening win over the Mumbai Indians.
Regarding whether Dhawan should have been more aggressive, Ponting remarked that while that is the goal, the pitch wasn't easy for anyone to dominate, particularly as the Powerplay drew to a close. Dhawan's struggle is evident in his stats; a strike rate below 115 is generally poor for T20s, as seen in his recent outings: 43 runs from 36 balls against MI and 51 runs from 47 balls against CSK.
\"Shikhar has a particular job to do in this competition,\" Ponting explained. \"He's even admitted himself that he wanted to score more quickly today. However, by the 15th over, we were sitting at 118 for 2,\"
\"Our target was to reach 147, so I'm actually more disappointed with the final stretch of the innings. I feel we established a very strong foundation at the start,\" Ponting added.
The game shifted significantly when Pant was dismissed, turning what could have been a competitive total into a disappointing one. The former Australian captain emphasized that one cannot expect the wicketkeeper-batsman to be the hero in every match.
\"It's unrealistic to expect Rishabh to replicate his Mumbai performance every time. Nobody can consistently hit 78 runs off 20 balls in every single game,\" Ponting clarified. \"That said, the opportunity was there today—not just for Rishabh, but Colin Ingram and Shreyas Iyer also had great chances to accelerate.\"
Despite the critique, the Australian legend avoided being overly harsh on Dhawan.
\"Ideally, we want Shikhar to score faster, but it was a tough day. He was also dealing with a lower leg injury, which hindered his usual agility between the wickets,\" Ponting explained. This physical niggle likely contributed to his cautious approach. Interestingly, the pitch appeared to be a batter's paradise when Shane Watson and Suresh Raina were dominating the bowlers during CSK's Powerplay.
Exactly when the Delhi Capitals batted, the pitch seemed, by all accounts, to be interesting from how it played when Shane Watson and Suresh Raina attacked the bowlers in the Powerplay overs.
Ponting dismissed the idea that the pitch was the problem. \"I don't believe the surface played a role; it remained consistent throughout the match. CSK, having bowled first, knew exactly how the pitch would slow down during the middle overs,\" he noted.
“I don’t think the pitch was a factor. I think the pitch remained extremely relative completely through the innings. I think CSK when they were seeking after that sort of a total, having bowled first on the wicket, they knew would back off a ton in the inside overs,” he said.
According to Ponting, the loss was a result of poor batting execution rather than a failure in bowling.
\"Strategically, CSK played it right by attacking hard in the Powerplay to take control of the game. On our side, we might have been a bit too aggressive with the ball, perhaps hunting for wickets too eagerly.\"
\"But to be clear, the bowling didn't lose us the match. We were short by about 20 to 30 runs with the bat, and that was the deciding factor,\" he concluded.