After a forgettable start to their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 campaign where Delhi Capitals (DC) incurred back-to-back losses, the last of which came at their home ground, DC is eyeing a turnaround in their away game against last year’s runners-up Rajasthan Royals at Guwahati. DC made a couple of changes in the XI for the match, where they opted to bowl first, and one of those moves left fans fuming at the team management, particularly at head coach Ricky Ponting as star batter Prithvi Shaw was benched.
Prithvi Shaw did not have a perfect start to IPL 2023 where he managed to score just 19 runs in a couple of innings and was undone by sheer pace on both occasions. The scores stood as a stark contrast to what was expected of him after a stunning run in the 2022-23 domestic season.
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Shaw was batting with immense consistency as his knocks included big hundreds in the Duleep Trophy, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and the Ranji Trophy, leading up to his first-ever India call-up in two years.
DC head coach Ponting too was full of praise for Shaw before the start of IPL 2023. He had said: “He just has that different look in his eye this year – you can see that he’s probably hungrier than ever. Yes he’s had some success for us, but I think with the level of talent and ability that he’s got, I think we’re going to see the real Prithvi Shaw this season.”
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However, after a struggling start to his sixth IPL season, Prthvi Shaw was benched for the crucial match against Rajasthan, and Manish Pandey was picked in his stead.
Prithvi Shaw after just two bad outings. Seriously unbelievable. You want players like Shaw upfront #DoddaMathu #CricketTwitter #IPL2023 #DCvRR
— Dodda Ganesh | ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಣೇಶ್ (@doddaganesha) April 8, 2023
Yes Prithvi Shaw might have failed a couple of games.He is an X-Factor player who will make an impact at least 6 out of 14 matches.A player of his style can never be consistent.This is extremely surprising decision from DC to bench him.
— Prasanna (@prasannalara) April 8, 2023
Delhi capitals have replaced Prithvi Shaw with Manish Pandey which I feel is a horrible decision. Shaw even when he fails ensures that he doesn't play too many dot balls. #RRvsDC
— Vikas Agarwal (@VikasAgarwalll) April 8, 2023
this is a joke manish pandey over prithvi shaw?
— master (@master26804305) April 8, 2023
Extremely disappointed at Prithvi Shaw not in playing XI. The kind of aggressive cricket he plays, failures are going to be frequent. To drop him after two failures, I don’t know what to say. All this after Ponting said so many good things about him at the start of the season.
— Cricketologist (@AMP86793444) April 8, 2023
“There is one forced change with Powell coming in for Marsh. There are changes. Lalit comes in as well for Sarfraz. Manish Pandey comes in,” DC skipper Warner had said after winning the toss. Shaw has however been slotted into the Impact Player list for the match against RR.
