New Delhi: Delhi Capitals’ (DC) hope to qualify for the IPL 2024 playoffs still hangs in the balance despite culminating their league stage campaign with a 19-run win over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Tuesday but team director Sourav Ganguly is pleased with captain Rishabh Pant’s leadership skills in his comeback season and expects it to flourish in coming years.
With 14 points in as many games, Delhi sit in the fifth spot in the points table and are dependent upon different permutations and combinations to qualify for the knockout round.
Pant returned to cricketing action in IPL 2024 after more than a year of injury layoff following a fatal car accident in December 2022.
“Pant is a young captain, he’ll learn with time. The way he returned from injury to play a full season; we had our doubts during the offseason. Indian players are crucial, especially since the IPL shifted to 10 teams. I am very happy for him that he returned to play so well over a full season,” Ganguly told Jiocinema.
Under Pant’s captaincy, DC won seven games in 13 matches after the wicketkeeper-batter was suspended for the clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He also amassed 446 runs at an average of 40.55 including three half-centuries.
“He has all my well-wishes for whatever is next. With time, he’ll become a better captain. Nobody is a great captain from day one, but he is an instinctual captain, he makes decisions on the ground. With more time, he’ll get better,” he added.
Former India captain picked pacer Mukesh Kumar as the team’s best bowler in the season. The 30-year-old has been the joint-highest wicket-taker for the franchise along with Khaleel Ahmed. The former has picked 17 scalps in 10 matches while Khaleed matches the same wicket tally in 14 games.
“Mukesh has been our best bowler this season. He bowls all the difficult overs, whether at the start or at the death. There has been no match this season where we didn’t need his bowling in the death. We knew that conceding sixes would lead to more losses, so he’s consistently delivered there. Our Indian bowlers have been great this season,” the veteran southpaw asserted. IANS
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