Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif has backed former India captain Sourav Ganguly to succeed as the head coach role at the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals (DC). Kaif said experienced Ganguly will tick the box at the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auction as well. The veteran also believes that DC lacked proper backing for their players during the era of former coach Ricky Ponting, whose seven-year contract ended earlier this month as well.
He told IANS (via The Times of India): “I feel Sourav Ganguly will do a good job if he takes over as Delhi Capitals head coach. He has experience, and a mega auction is also coming, so he will build a good team. Delhi had players but their problem was inconsistent playing 11. I don’t think they had issues with the players, they had quality players but they somehow lacked in backing their players. Delhi Capitals rotate their players so much. New players come and go, they had Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz, Mustafizur Rahman, Rilee Rossouw, and Ripal Patel for whom they said they’re grooming him. But they are not following their template of making a team of youngsters as they move on from that and bring in senior players. They don’t back their players and keep on changing players.”
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However, Mohammad Kaif further added that coaching gets challenging when the team loses back-to-back matches in the IPL. He also revealed where he feels the Capitals made tactical errors in the past as well. Notably, DC finished sixth in the IPL 2024 points table, with seven wins in 14 matches as well.
“Captains like Rohit Sharma and Ricky Ponting should not have an issue from the management. He is a legend and he should know how to run the team. The challenge comes when you lose 2-3 matches and after that, the management also gets involved and asks, ‘Why are you losing? When management asks what is going on, this is where the puzzle goes wrong and pressure builds. Delhi made tactical mistakes in the last few matches and missed out on the (play-off) qualification,” Mohammad Kaif concluded.
