Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer confirmed that their injured wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant will be out of action from IPL 2020 for at least a week. Pant injured his leg in Delhi’s previous match, against Rajasthan Royals in Sharjah.
Pant missed Sunday’s game against Mumbai Indians which Delhi lost by five wickets in Abu Dhabi. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Iyer said the doctor has advised at least a week’s rest for Pant.
“We have no idea, I spoke to the doctor. He said he has to rest for a week. Hope he comes back really strong,” Iyer said when asked about Pant.
Delhi play Rajasthan Royals (October 14) and Chennai Super Kings (October 17) over the next week.
In Pant’s absence, Delhi had to rejig their team combination bringing in Alex Carey as the wicketkeeper and thus dropping Shimron Hetmyer. Ajinkya Rahane batted at No. 3 with a batting slot opening up.
With the lack of power hitters in the middle order, Delhi managed only 162 for 4 in their 20 overs with Shikhar Dhawan making a relatively slow half-century (69 off 52).
Iyer said they were 10 runs short at least and pointed to Marcus Stoinis’ run out in the 17th over as a key moment.
“I would say 10-15 short, 170-175 on the board would have looked completely different. We really missed out when Stoinis got out, he was hitting the ball really well and also seeing the ball like a football, that was the main error that we did and something that we really need to work on,” he said.
“Apart from that the effort we put on the field, we could definitely work on that as there were a few misfields and dropped catches as well. Overall they outplayed us in all the departments.”
Iyer opted to bat first hoping the pitch would slow down in the second half, but felt it didn’t happen.
“We need to work on our mindsets before the next game. I thought the spinners were bowling well as the ball was coming onto the bat, it wasn’t stopping as it was in the first innings,” he said.
“If we could have squeezed in two more wickets after the powerplay we would have been on top. It is really important for us not to take any team lightly and be positive in our approach. There are still certain elements we have to work and we will use the break to work on that.”
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