Former Indian left-arm bowler Ashish Nehra believes that Rishabh Pant should be retained as captain of the Delhi Capitals (DC) for the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
DC won the league stage of the IPL 2021 with 20 points under Pant’s leadership. However, they were eliminated from the competition after losses in the two qualifiers to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Pant’s lack of experience as a leader was shown when he made a few tactical errors. However, Nehra believes that the 24-year-old was impressive overall and that there is no need to replace him as the franchise’s captain.
“Pant should be retained as DC captain for next season. The more he plays, the better he will get. There is no doubt about that. The sooner he learns, the better for him and the franchise. Keeping aside a few tactical mistakes that he made, he was good as a captain. Everyone cannot be an MS Dhoni, who came in and won the T20 World Cup directly in 2007. Give Pant some time to improve.” he said
Kolkata Knight Riders
“If you observe DC’s performance under him in the last three games, they lost to RCB in the last over and went down to CSK in another tight contest. Against KKR, they didn’t win but they stayed in the game even though it seemed a lost cause. As a captain, these close games teach you a lot. Hopefully, Pant is retained as DC captain next season because he needs to be given some time to settle in.” He stated
In Qualifier 2, DC batted first and scored 135 runs against KKR. Before DC bowlers orchestrated a dramatic collapse, Kolkata was cruising at 123 for 1 in the chase. KKR advanced to the final thanks to a six by Rahul Tripathi off the penultimate ball of the game.
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