Coach Ricky Ponting Slams Shaw's 13-Game Scoring Drought

04/29/2023

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Ricky Ponting candidly revealed the reasons for Prithvi Shaw's exclusion from the XI in the team's recent match against SRH, displaying a straightforward approach to addressing the matter.

Struggling at the bottom of the table with just two wins in seven matches, the Delhi Capitals have had a disappointing season thus far. Their batting unit has been a major source of worry, compounded by the poor form of Prithvi Shaw, one of their most explosive batsmen. Shaw's dreadful patch is evident as he has only managed to accumulate 47 runs in six matches. To add to the troubles, Shaw was omitted from the playing XI in DC's recent match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The reason was, then, publicly shared by the Delhi Capitals’ coach Ricky Ponting.

Despite the efforts of his replacement, Phil Salt, who couldn't quite rise to the occasion against the Sunrisers, it appears that Prithvi Shaw may face an extended period on the sidelines. Head coach Ricky Ponting's recent comments indicate his dissatisfaction with Shaw's lacklustre batting displays throughout the 2023 season. The former Australian captain didn't hold back in criticising Shaw's subpar performances.

What did Ricky Ponting say?

Ahead of their first reverse fixture match against SRH, Ricky Ponting said in the conference,

“I think it's 13 games (considering IPL 2022 as well) since Prithvi has made a 50 opening the batting for the Delhi Capitals. There are a lot of other players at the top of the order with other teams that are playing a whole lot better than Prithvi.”

In a straightforward manner, Ponting expressed that the team doesn't currently require Shaw in the playing XI, pointing to his statistics for the ongoing season.

Continuing further, he stated,

“Prithvi at his absolute best… we know he's a match winner. That's one of the reasons that he's a retained player because we know if he bats a certain amount of balls, we win about 95% of the games, But so far this season, he hasn't been able to produce.”

Ponting did not hold back and further said,

“I think the six games that he played were just over 40-odd runs, so that's not what we require right now. So is it a tough decision to leave him out but hopefully the team that we put on the park tomorrow can go win another game for us.”

Prithvi Shaw disappoints fans and management

In the end, the Delhi Capitals made the decision to exclude the right-handed batsman for their away game against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, April 24. However, they are scheduled to face the same opposition at home on Saturday, April 29.

The Australian legend further commented that upon Shaw's arrival at DC for IPL 2023, he held high expectations for the 23-year-old, considering his impressive performance during net sessions and observing his fitness levels. Ponting stated:

“When he arrived this year, he'd been at the NCA for quite a few weeks working really hard on his fitness he turned up in good physical shape and his work ethic and training and everything in the nets suggested to me that this might be just that big year for him but that hasn't worked out just yet.”

Having recorded scores of 12, 7, 0, 15, 0, and 13 in IPL 2023 thus far, Shaw's batting performances have been underwhelming. Despite this, the DC coach remains optimistic that Shaw can capitalise on his chances if given another opportunity later in the tournament. Currently, the Delhi Capitals find themselves in 10th position in the IPL 2023 points table, having secured two wins and suffered five losses.

In other news, Gautam Gambhir has trolled the team management for ridiculous dancing while celebrating