It has been a challenging few years for Ricky Ponting at Delhi Capitals: Shane Watson

New Delhi (Uttam Hindu News): Everything has not been easy for Ricky Ponting, who has been the head coach of Delhi Capitals since 2018. However, DC reached the final in 2020 and made it to the playoffs of the 2019 and 2021 editions. But the franchise has not been able to enter the knockouts in the subsequent seasons.

This time, DC are in ninth place and have just a win over Chennai Super Kings to show. Ahead of the clash against Mumbai Indians on Sunday afternoon, Ponting’s former Australian teammate Shane Watson, who served as DC’s assistant coach in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, admitted that it has been a challenging few years for Ponting. It has been a long time, but he supported Ponting that he can turn the situation around.

“It has certainly been a challenging few years for Ricky Ponting at Delhi Capitals. But I’m not sure this will be his last year there. One thing I know from a coaching perspective is that if your team doesn’t perform well in a few years, the head coach will be the first person to be removed from the role. Ricky has had success early in his time with Delhi Capitals, but has had more challenging times over the last few years.

“But this is only the beginning of the tournament. Delhi Capitals performed amazingly against CSK. He played cricket as best as he could. The biggest challenge for Delhi Capitals is to be able to repeat this consistently throughout the tournament.”

“There’s no reason why they can’t do that, and Ricky Ponting is one of the best leaders, and he was certainly the best leader in and around Australian cricket that I’ve been involved with. He enhanced my cricket during the time he captained me. He has been an inspirational leader for a large part of my career and he has been much the same at Delhi Capitals as well.”

“But at the end of the day, he can’t bat or bowl for the Delhi Capitals players,” Watson, an IPL expert from broadcasters GeoCinema, said in a select virtual media interaction. The head coach is the first person to come under the microscope when the team is not winning. I know he will leave no stone unturned to get the best out of the Delhi Capitals players and hopefully they will work to make their place in the table.”

On the other hand, MI also have their own issues ahead of the clash against DC. The five-time champions have been deprived of victory due to not performing well as a unit and making eyebrow-raising tactical mistakes.

Additionally, captain Hardik Pandya has been booed badly by the crowd in all three matches so far. Watson advised Pandya to block out external noise and focus on perfecting his skills in pressure situations.

“For Hardik, one thing he has done very well throughout his career is to block out the noise, put on blinkers, put on headphones and focus on his ability to execute his skills immensely . He has done this in the past for Mumbai Indians and also for Gujarat Titans. You silence your critics with your performance and they have got the platform to do that.”

“He is an incredibly skilled cricketer and he is a great tactician and a great leader. So, he just needs to shut out the noise that is clearly around. He has to wear his headphones and not let any noise around the field enter his mind. When he’s at his best, his mind is bulletproof. ,

Royal Challengers Bangalore also have the problem of a poor batting order and ahead of the match against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur on Saturday evening, Watson called for Australia’s fast bowling all-rounder Cameron Green to be given the number three spot and said that he needs to use his skills efficiently. A new ball should be handed over to him.

“The most important thing is that he is the number three batsman. We saw this when he got a chance to bat at number three for Mumbai Indians (last year). “He is a top-order T20 batsman and has incredible skills, but he is not a number five batsman at all.”

“So, if RCB want to get the best out of him, they will have to lock him in at number three for the duration of the entire IPL tournament, he will definitely win some matches for the team. But just because he doesn’t score runs in one or two games, you can’t send him down the order in a position where he’s definitely not working.

“Batting the middle overs is not his strength at all right now. With time, but right now, as a young top order batsman, that is his skill. It’s the same with the ball – he is a very skilled bowler of the new ball. He can swing the ball both ways and has good pace. He also has good defensive skills, although he went for a few runs.

Watson concluded, “The biggest challenge for RCB is to get him into the game as much as possible – which could be by letting him bat at number three and giving him the brand new ball in the first six overs. But unfortunately RCB have made a habit of not doing this throughout their history of being in the IPL. ,