IPL 2022: Ricky Ponting supports DC skipper Rishabh Pant in all his on-field decisions

The Delhi Capitals lost against Chennai Super Kings by 91-runs at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on May 8. Delhi Capitals have won 5 out of 11 matches scoring 10 points and positioning themselves in 5 the place. After DC’s loss against CSK former players have interrogated Delhi Captain’s skipper Rishabh Pant’s on-field decisions and about the choice of bowlers during a crucial time. But Delhi Capitals’ head coach Ricky Ponting said he fully backs every decision Pant takes on the field and he has his “full support”. Ricky Ponting also says “it’s easy to make a judgment from the outside.” 

“I fully back every decision he (Pant) takes on the field. I being a T20 captain before, I know you don’t have a lot of time to think about, especially under extreme pressure,” Ponting said at the post-match press conference after DC’s 91-run loss to CSK.

“It is easy to make judgments from outside, but trust me, when you are in the middle; it is not an easy thing to do.”

Detailing the decision-making process of a captain, Ricky Ponting said, “A captain makes decisions in a very short time and the decision he takes he thinks is the best for the team at that given time of the match. He takes things like boundary size and batsmen at the crease into account when he makes those decisions.”

Ponting accepted that their team was not good in batting and bowling except for Khaleel Ahmed in the game against CSK.

“Our bowling was not up to the mark; similarly our batting was very, very poor. There were not many positives to take from the match. The only positive was Khaleel Ahmed; he was outstanding with the ball again,” Ponting said.

“To lose by 91 runs, it will put a huge dent in our net run rate. It means we need to bounce back really strongly in our next game.”

Ponting said DC can still have hope for the playoffs by winning all the remaining three games.

“We would think we can make the playoffs with three wins. Eight wins might be enough to get in and one big win might help our net run rate. Who knows we can be in the final. That is what we can think of. What happened has happened and we would want to look to the future and look for a rebound from a bad performance,” Ponting said.

DC faced covid related issues with the net bowler testing positive before the match against CSK. This was not their first time facing this issue with covid problems. Also, Ponting mentioned this was not an excuse for their defeat.

“That’s not an excuse for us. It’s not the first time that we’ve had to deal with it on game day. In one of the earlier games against Punjab Kings, we had to deal with the same thing and ended up winning that game really comfortably,” he said.

“We are going to make excuses and we are going to find solutions for the problems we are facing. Although it wasn’t ideal preparation, we should have played better cricket. At the end of the day, we let ourselves down,” Ponting further added.