Delhi Capitals’ destructive opener Prithvi Shaw was all praise for head coach Ricky Ponting and has credited him for revolutionizing the fortunes of the franchise. Shaw labelled him as a boss who knows how to set and achieve targets.
The Australian batting great was appointed as the head coach of Delhi Capitals in 2018. Under his guidance, DC have regularly played dominant cricket and have qualified for the playoffs. They finished runners-up in IPL 2020 and also topped the league stage last season, even though they failed to qualify for the final.
Delhi Capitals have had a topsy-turvy start to their IPL 2022 campaign. Although they secured an impressive last-gasp win against Mumbai Indians by four wickets, they suffered a loss against Gujarat Titans by 14 runs in the very next game.
Ahead of their third IPL 2022 match against Lucknow Super Giants, Prithvi Shaw talked about the influence that Ricky Ponting has had on the group. In an interview uploaded to iplt20.com, he said, “Since 2018, he has been coaching the Delhi Capitals. He’s like the boss of the team. He sets up a target among the players and he has got 15-20 years of experience in international cricket. He shares his experience – how he used to play, how he used to captain. We question him a lot as youngsters and he gives us feedback, which means a lot. It’s going well and I am enjoying playing under him.”
Even though he went on to slam a half-century in the match against LSG, Prithvi Shaw didn’t have a great start to his campaign. The young opener admitted that his performances hadn’t been upto the mark in the first couple of matches but he also mentioned that he has been timing the ball well, something which was on show against LSG.
“Obviously not happy with the performance but I am striking the ball well. It’s is just a matter of one innings, might get some runs. The process is going quite well in the nets as well.”
Prithvi Shaw also identified that the powerplay performance was going to be crucial. That is probably why he took on the onus of scoring runs in the first six overs and DC raced to a score of 52/0 in the Powerplay with Shaw at 47* (27).
“The powerplay is very crucial for us. In the last two games, we lost too many wickets in the powerplay itself. The lower-order batters are doing quite well, we just have to brush up things up the order. The bowlers are doing a fantastic job. In both the matches, they have restricted batsmen. The line and length they are bowling has been exceptional. We need to really set ourselves up in the powerplay,” he had said before the match.
