Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody feels Delhi Capitals will have to take a tough call on certain players to stay alive in the competition. The Capitals haven’t been able to get going in the ongoing season as they have lost all of their five matches and have failed to register a solitary win.
Moody reckons Ricky Ponting and David Warner should drop Prithvi Shaw, who has managed to score only 34 runs in five matches at a paltry average of 6.80 and a strike rate of 117.24. The talented batter holds the key at the top of the order for DC but he hasn’t been able to provide good starts to his team.
Speaking on ESPNCricinfo, “You’ve got to make a tough call on certain players that aren’t showing any light at the end of the tunnel. And on the evidence of what we’ve seen so far with Prithvi Shaw, it may well be that IPL 2023 may not be his year where he has the impact that we all hoped that he was going to have.
“It can just be, ‘oh, we’ll give him a couple more games and see what happens’. Those couple of games go, your chances as a franchise have gone.”
Moody has suggested that Delhi Capitals’ think tank should promote Mitchell Marsh in the batting order and they should recall Rilee Rossouw back into the team.
“He’s done that before recently and he’s done it successfully. He’s naturally an enforcer so that would complement Warner. It would help him as well. You’ve got a left-right combination, you’ve got a 6ft4in and a 5ft8in batter, which is difficult to bowl to.”
Moody added that he will want to keep a right-left hand combination in the top four of the batting order.
“At No. 3 and 4, I’d have Rilee Rossouw and Manish Pandey both padded up. I’d always want to keep a left-right combination in the top four. If Marsh gets out, Pandey goes in, and vice versa. That would be my lock for the top four.”
Delhi Capitals have failed to come up with a collective effort, especially with the bat and they will need to turn the corner before it gets too late for them.