Former India opener Virender Sehwag has said that Delhi Capitals’ head coach Ricky Ponting should take the blame for the side’s disastrous start in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season after having done some good work in the past seasons.
Sehwag’s statement came after Delhi suffered their fifth consecutive defeat in the tournament, this time in a 23-run loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday and are still at the bottom of the ten-team points table.
“I think I said before that Punjab have passed on the axe to Delhi, so now the axe has reached Delhi. When a team loses, the coaches are credited, so when the team loses, they should be held responsible,” Sehwag was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
“Even, we said so many times that Ponting has done a brilliant job, taking them to the finals, they now reach the playoffs almost every year now. He took all those credits, now he has to take this one as well,” he added.
After a 34-ball 50 from RCB skipper Virat Kohli guided his side to a repectable 174/6, Delhi lost three quick wickets and were reeling at 2/3 at one point and never recovered from the setback, eventually finishing it at 151/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
Sehwag, who captained the Delhi franchise in his IPL days, felt that the David Warner-led side are giving a confused look in attempting to make a turnaround.
“Even we said so many times that this is not the Indian team where they take credit for the wins and for the losses someone else is blamed for. There are zero roles of a coach in an IPL team,” Sehwag expressed.
“The big responsibility is man-management and giving the players that confidence, but in the end, a coach looks good only when the team performs well, which Delhi haven’t done at all. I feel Delhi has reached that point where they are confused about what they should do to change their fortune,” he added.
Delhi Capitals will now be facing two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on April 20.