"Lot of pressure comes on a couple of players" - Ricky Ponting understands why RCB's Glenn Maxwell asked for a break amidst IPL 2024
Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting completely understands all-rounder Glenn Maxwell voluntarily asking the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to grant him a break to focus on his physical and mental well-being amidst the IPL 2024 season.
Maxwell addressed the press conference after RCB's loss at the hands of the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, April 15, and was pretty honest when asked about his absence from the playing XI. He said:
"I went to Faf and the coaches after the last game (vs Mumbai Indians) and said it was probably time we tried someone else (in his place). It's actually a good time to give myself a bit of a mental and physical break, get my body right. If I'm required to get in during the tournament, I can, hopefully, get back into a solid mental and physical space where I can make an impact."
Speaking to PTI, Ricky Ponting explained how RCB's dependence on players like Glenn Maxwell and Virat Kohli to take the burden of the run-scoring might have played its part in players feeling mentally and physically fatigued.
As a coach, he understands how to look at it from the players' perspective and opined:
"For someone like Glenn if you talk about, in that team (RCB), him being one of the 'Big Dogs' along with Virat, a lot of pressure comes on a couple of players playing in that team if they don't perform, the results tend to not follow them if you see what they have done in the tournament so far, pressure builds up on an individual player as well."
RCB faced their sixth defeat of the IPL 2024 season after losing by 25 runs to SRH and now find themselves rock bottom in the points table.
Glenn Maxwell's form has been a massive worry for RCB
Glenn Maxwell is having an absolute shocker of an IPL season so far. In six matches, he has scored just 32 runs at an appalling average of 5.33 and a strike rate of 94.12.
RCB also seem to have lost faith in Cameron Green, whom they traded in from the Mumbai Indians for a whopping INR 17.5 crore. They have reached a situation where another loss would almost certainly knock them out of the race to the playoffs.