“That's not what we require right now” - DC coach Ricky Ponting explains decision to drop Prithvi Shaw

Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting has admitted that the decision to drop struggling opener Prithvi Shaw has not been an easy one. He, however, backed the move, stating that a lot of openers in other Indian Premier League (IPL) teams are performing better than the young batter.

Shaw has played six innings for DC in the ongoing IPL and has scored merely 47, looking completely out of rhythm. Delhi have tried him as an “Impact Player” as well, but that ploy has also not worked.

Eventually, DC decided to leave out the right-handed batter for the away game against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, April 24. They will take on the same opposition at home on Saturday, April 29. At a pre-match conference, Ponting opened up on the Shaw situation and explained:

"I think it's 13 games (including IPL 2022) since Prithvi has made a 50 opening the batting for the Delhi capitals. There are a lot of other players at the top of the order with other teams that are playing a whole lot better than Prithvi.

"Prithvi at his absolute best we know he's a match winner. That's one of the reasons that he's a retained player because we know if he bats a certain amount of balls, we win about 95% of the games. But so far this season, he hasn't been able to produce. I think the six games that he played was just over 40-odd runs, so that's not what we require right now.

"So is it a tough decision to leave him out but hopefully the team that we put on the park tomorrow can go win another game for us."

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The Aussie legend added that when Shaw joined DC ahead of IPL 2023, he felt that the 23-year-old might have a big year, considering the way he was batting in the nets and looking at his fitness levels as well. Ponting commented:

"When he arrived this year, he'd been at the NCA for quite a few weeks working really hard on his fitness he turned up in good physical shape and his work ethic and training and everything in the nets suggested to me that this might be just that big year for him but that hasn't worked out just yet."

Shaw has registered scores of 12, 7, 0, 15, 0, and 13 in IPL 2023 so far.

“There's a long way to go” - Ponting hopeful of Shaw comeback

With Shaw failing, DC moved England's Phil Salt to the top of the order, but that hasn't worked as well. Ponting admitted:

"We needed to try and find a bit of a spark at the top of the order and Phil Salt moved up there the last game but that didn't quite work as well.”

The DC coach expressed hope that Shaw can make his chances count if he gets another opportunity later in the tournament. Concluding his thoughts on the Mumbai batter, Ponting said:

"There's a long way to go and if things don't work out with our current top order, there's no reason why he couldn't be back in the team and hopefully can finish the tournament off really strongly."

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Delhi Capitals are 10th in the IPL 2023 points table with two wins and five losses.