By Boria Majumdar
It is not easy being in the Delhi Capitals dugout at this point. Four losses out of four, and time is running out for one of the most high-profile franchises in the league. With legends like Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in the dugout and with Dave Warner leading the side, the criticism has been more stinging than normal. All of a sudden, with four consecutive losses as Delhi, Warner is being doubted and his leadership ability questioned.
None of this is new. In sport, you will always lose more than you will win. Sachin Tendulkar was the greatest to play the sport. He scored 51 hundreds in 200 Tests. Simply put, he did not score a century in 149 Test matches.
What Delhi need to do is believe. There are examples before them to fall back on and take heart from. The Kolkata Knight Riders’ campaign in 2021 has many life lessons to it. First, it was a lesson in how to never say never in life. Coinciding with the second Covid wave, KKR’s campaign was all doom and gloom in April and May 2021. But come September, they were a different team with a very different mindset. Things do get better after all.
For Delhi too, they will. For Kolkata, it was about self-belief and how it rubs off on the people surrounding you. The introduction of Venky Iyer at the top made Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi very different players with far less pressure on them. Finally, even without Andre Russell, KKR never lacked the self-belief associated with champion teams. It was the perfect life lesson. Despite all the negativity around, they did not give up.
As for Warner, he needs support at the top. With Prithvi Shaw not scoring and Mitchell Marsh not there for a couple of games, Warner has found it hard to get going. Thinking of what happens if he gets out in trying to accelerate has held him back. The dilemma. Should he attack or should he not? What is better for the team with batters not firing at the other end? Except Axar Patel, no one has been able to score quick and that has hurt Delhi in a big way.
Now with Marsh all set to make a comeback and Axar due for a promotion, all Warner needs is for Shaw to bat well at the top. If Shaw gets going, Warner can play the anchor role. He can bat the way he wants and not panic. He won’t be under pressure to score fast with the attendant risk of getting out. Rather, he will have the freedom to express himself without thinking that the batting after him is thin. Shaw is, in many ways, the key for Delhi.
Shaw, at one point, was compared to Tendulkar. While there can only be one Tendulkar, the fact that the comparison was made is testament to the talent that Shaw has. That he is good enough was never in doubt. And contrary to what people think of him, Shaw has always been a good learner.
Sample this from him. “I want to be a dedicated learner of the game, work the hardest I can and do things the right way,” he once said. “That’s all I am concerned with. This is what has worked for me and no reason why it will not in the future.”
That’s all he needs to do. Work the hardest he can, and give the sport the respect it deserves. At the start of the innings, Shaw needs to hold himself back a tad with things not going his way. A little more restraint is all that Delhi needs. A good opening stand. The moment that happens, all of the negativity will disappear.
We have seen it far too many times in sport. It is just about a day. A session, in fact. A five-over spell at the start of an innings can change everything. Thirty minutes of good batting. That’s what Sourav and Ricky need to tell Warner, Shaw and the boys. Thirty minutes of good batting on Saturday afternoon, and the campaign will be back on track. Against a good Royal Challengers Bangalore attack, it won’t be easy. But that’s the beauty of the sport. It will challenge you each step along the way. But at the same time, it will also reward you if you stay true. The start of the Bengali new year could well be the day for Delhi. A certain Sourav Ganguly on the Delhi bench will certainly hope so.