Ricky Ponting, the coach of the Delhi Capitals, has said that Shikhar Dhawan has to play quicker while opening for the side. No doubt, Shikhar Dhawan is a class player and has the ability to score quickly also but somehow he failed to capitalize quickly and reached his half-century in the 17th over during their second game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.
In the two matches of DC, Dhawan scored 43 off 36 balls and 51 off 47 balls respectively. In the first match against Mumbai, he stayed on the crease till 16th over and against Chennai he stayed in the 18th over. However, Ponting felt that Dhawan should have played with a faster strike-rate and score more runs for the team.
Read here: CSK captain MS Dhoni’s epic reaction when Bravo ask for DRS
“Ideally,” Ponting said after the loss against CSK. “Yes, you’d like that. Obviously, it wasn’t an easy wicket either for anyone to come in and strike, especially at the end of the Powerplay. There’s a certain role we want Shikhar to play in this team. Even by his own admission, he probably would have liked to score a little bit quicker today.”
The wicket at the Kotla was not easy to bat on as it was a slow pitch; where Delhi put up 147-6 and Chennai took 19.4 overs to reach their target. Shikhar Dhawan’s strike-rate of 108.51 was way lower than wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant’s (192.30) and the opener Prithvi Shaw’s (150) but both the youngsters faced just 13 and 16 deliveries respectively, whereas Dhawan anchored Delhi’s innings to a competitive total.
“In an ideal world, yes we would like Shikhar to score quicker but it was difficult for him,” said Ponting. “He did his ankle while he was batting as well so his usual running between the wickets was a little bit hampered tonight.”
Also read: DJ Bravo Reveals About CSk Meetings And Their Plans
“We need to sit down in the next couple of days and talk about how we are going to bat better on that surface. The wickets we are going to get right through the season are going to be quite similar to the one we got tonight. We need to get a little bit smarter on that wicket.”
Delhi Capitals will face Kolkata Knight Riders on March 30 in their next game.
