Former India batsman Virender Sehwag wasn't pleased with Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Rishabh Pant's captaincy against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Tuesday (April 27).
Sehwag criticized Pant's decisions and said he wouldn't even rate him 5 out of 10 for his captaincy. He talked about the bowling changes and felt Pant's calculations went wrong.
“I won’t give him even five marks out of 10 for his captaincy because you just can’t make such mistakes. If your main bowler isn’t bowling, your calculations go wrong – that’s what captaincy is all about. You need to take care of that. A captain must manage his bowling resources according to the situation.
“You need to learn that. Or else you hand over the ball to whomsoever you want. The capability of a skipper is measured by how he turns the game around. He needs to make changes in the bowling or field position accordingly,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
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Bowling first, DC conceded 171/5 in 20 overs and it was Marcus Stoinis who bowled the last over to AB de Villiers (75*). Stoinis conceded 23 runs in his over which made a big difference.
“So, if Rishabh Pant wants to become a good captain, he needs to keep these small things in his mind. Play smart cricket, then only you can become a smart skipper,” Sehwag added.
Former India pacer Ashish Nehra spoke on Pant's innings and said his 48-ball 58* runs was the result of poor planning. Shimron Hetmyer had brought DC back in the game with his quickfire 25-ball 53*.
“The way Rishabh batted in the middle overs and the number of runs he missed out on during the death overs, that was nothing but a poor strategy. If Shimron Hetmyer had lost his wicket early, we could have seen DC losing by 25 runs.
“They planned their chase poorly as two of your set batsmen returned unbeaten and you lost the game by 1 run. That shouldn’t have happened in this format,” Nehra said.
Delhi fell 1 run short of the target when they needed 14 runs off the last over. Pant managed only a couple of fours when the equation was 10 runs off 2 balls against Mohammed Siraj.
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
