Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag has come down heavily on Delhi Capitals’ (DC) coach Ricky Ponting after the franchise lost its fifth straight game in the ongoing IPL 2023, as they lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 15 by 23 runs in Bengaluru.
Virat Kohli’s 50 off 34 balls propelled RCB to a total of 174/6. In reply, despite Manish Pandey’s 50, the loss of early wickets hurt DC as they managed 151/9 and lost the match, their fifth in a row. The Capitals are now in the 10th place in the IPL 2023 points table with 0 points to their name.
Sehwag in his assessment said that DC coach Ricky Ponting has done good work with the franchise in the past but needs to take the blame for the team’s failures now.
“I think I said before that Punjab has passed on the axe to Delhi, so now the axe has reached Delhi. When a team wins, the coaches are credited, so when the team loses, they should be held responsible. Even though we said so many times that Ponting has done a brilliant job, and took them to the finals, they now reach the playoffs almost every year. He took all those credits, now he has to take this credit as well,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
Sehwag added that there is zero role of a coach in an IPL team and they are more of man managers and motivate the players to do their best.
“This is not the Indian team where they take credit for the wins and the losses, someone else is blamed. There is zero role of a coach in an IPL team. The big responsibility is man-management and to give the players that confidence, but in the end, a coach looks good only when the team performs well which Delhi haven’t done it at all. I feel Delhi has reached that point where they are confused what should they do to change their fortune,” Sehwag added.
DC’s next match is on 20 April against Kolkata Knight Riders.
