Former India player Aakash Chopra has added that Karun Nair has failed to make the most of his chances in IPL 2025 so far. He said that the Delhi Capitals (DC) batter played a stunning 89-run knock against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in his first hit this season as well, but he hasn’t made a significant contribution after that.
Reflecting on DC’s chase in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “The start wasn’t good. You (KKR) played Anukul Roy for Faf du Plessis. He didn’t trap Faf but dismissed Abishek Porel. Vaibhav Arora got Karun Nair out, and I ask a question. Cricket has given you a second chance, but you are not making the most of it.”
“You have played one good knock and affected one or two good run-outs, and shown a few glimpses that you can actually go on, but big knocks are not coming, and you are batting at the top of the order. You are getting a chance to bat at No. 3. Then Rahul’s run-out. I think that was the game-changing moment. When Faf and Stubbs got out, I thought this game was over,” Chopra again shared.
While talking about DC’s bowling in their IPL 2025 clash against KKR, Aakash Chopra questioned Axar Patel for not using the spinners well in the powerplay as well.
“You decided to bowl after winning the toss. Sunil Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz started to thrash you, and you didn’t show spin at all in the first six overs. You don’t bring the spinners, and that, in my opinion, was a mistake. If you had brought spinners, there would have been chances to pick up wickets. You got wickets, but it was a little too late,” he said.
“Not getting Kuldeep to bowl his full quota of overs – big decision to make. (Mitchell) Starc had one over left last time, and this time it was Kuldeep. So there is a question for sure, as you didn’t show spin in the first six overs, and then bowled 10 consecutive overs of spin, where you have Vipraj (Malik), Axar and Kuldeep. So how will you get them to bowl all their overs?” he concluded.
