With five losses from as many games, Delhi Capitals seem out of contention for the Playoffs. They have been shambolic in all departments of the game. The Indian Express takes a deeper look
Five games into the season and the Delhi Capitals already seem like a team who are out of the playoff contention.
“I said at the toss we needed to do all disciplines well,” said David Warner after his team’s loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore by 23 runs. With the defeat, the Capitals have now lost all their five games and are at the bottom of the table.
The closest they came to winning a game was when they were playing against the Mumbai Indians at home where the visitors snatched a victory off the final ball. Apart from that, in the rest of their four defeats, the Capitals were outplayed.
Courtesy of Kuldeep Yadav’s spin in the middle overs, their bowling has been in slightly better shape than their batting. However, compared to other sides in the tournament the Capitals just haven’t turned up this season so far.
The batting woes
12, 7, 0, 15 and 0 have been Prithvi Shaw’s scores in this season’s IPL. Most of Delhi’s success in the past couple of seasons can be attributed to the quick-fire starts the 23-year-old has given. His starts would put the bowlers under pressure in the first six overs and negate the run rate issues allowing the other batters to settle down. However, this season he is struggling with his form and timing the ball.
Delhi Capitals
Mitchell Marsh who comes in with a lot of reputation for every IPL season has hardly shown his hitting capabilities. Batting at a crucial position at three, Marsh hardly showed any resistance this season when Shaw fell early. He is averaging 1.33 in three innings with the bat so far. With the likes of Phil Salt, who has a reputation as a brutal striker of the cricket ball, warming the bench, how justifiable is Marsh’s place in the side especially when Shaw is struggling at the top?
Warner himself acknowledged that the top order has to bat well. “We need to do better with the bat and build partnerships at the top of the order. It is a matter of starting well with the bat.”
If the top order has its fair share of issues so does the middle and lower order. Sarfaraz Khan was given the opportunity to fill in the big shoes of Rishabh Pant which he has found hard to do. Coming in after a stellar domestic red-ball season Sarfaraz seems to have a tough time scoring boundaries when the field is spread in IPL. In the game against Gujarat Titans, Sarfaraz huffed and puffed to a 34-ball 30 and throughout the innings struggled to score boundaries on the knock.
Rovman Powell’s reputation precedes the contributions he actually makes to the side. The West Indian has hardly helped the Capitals win any games either with bat or ball. He averages 19 with the bat and his economy has been 11 in his IPL career so far.
Axar Patel has been the one player in this line-up who has looked in fantastic touch. He scored 129 runs at an average of 25.80 and a strike rate of 165.38 coming down the order. He has been one of the major reasons, apart from David Warner, behind the Capitals getting bundled for 120 and scrapping through to a manageable total every game. However, despite being the only batter who has been able to score freely, the management seems to keep batting him lower down the order instead of letting him face more deliveries by promoting him.
The Warner dilemma
The Capitals skipper is no doubt an IPL great. However, the way he has approached his innings in this season’s IPL has left many scratching their heads. He is a contender once again for the orange cap this season. However, despite scoring 233 runs at an average of 45.60, his strike rate of 116.92 has been a huge concern for the Capitals.
David Warner during IPL 2023
The Capitals have lost 11 wickets in the Powerplay so far in five games. Constantly losing wickets up at the top seems to have weighed heavily on Warner and not allowed him to play freely the way he wanted to. In the absence of Rishabh Pant, the middle order seems to be thin for the side forcing Warner to continue to play low-risk games even in the middle overs.
In the 51-run knock against Mumbai Indians Warner struggled with his timing, He even changed his guard and batted right-handed to face a free-hit against off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen. In the innings, he tried to cut, pull and drive a few deliveries but nothing worked. He was even dropped once in the innings. He was eventually put out of misery by Jason Behrendorff. It is a knock that embodied Warner’s recent form and Capital’s performance as a side this season.
International seamers need to step it up
If they have lost 12 wickets while batting in the Powerplay they could only pick up four wickets in the five games so far. The lack of getting wickets with the new ball allowed the opposition sides to lay a solid foundation and put on a huge score or chase the total easily against the Capitals.
DC pacer Anrich Nortje celebrates a wicket in IPL 2023
Premium pacer Anrich Nortje in four games picked up two wickets and is going at an economy rate of 9.31. Another seamer Mustafizur Rahman in two games has been going at an economy of 11.29 and picked up one wicket.
With Khaleel Ahmed injured and Mukesh Kumar being inexperienced the onus is on the international seamers to take responsibility with the new ball and provide early breakthroughs and close well in the final overs which they could not do so far.
Source:indianexpress.com