Former left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra said that Delhi Capitals (DC) should retain Rishabh Pant as the captain of the team for the next Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Under his captaincy, Delhi topped the chart in the league stage of IPL 2021 with 20 points as well.
However, they failed to reach the final after suffering two losses to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the two qualifiers. And, Pant’s inexperience as a captain saw them doing a few tactical mistakes. But according to Nehra, he has done well overall and there is no reason to replace him as well.
During an interaction on Cricbuzz, the former India bowler commented: “Pant should be retained as DC captain for next season. The more he plays, the better he will get. There is no doubt about that. The sooner he learns, the better for him and the franchise. Keeping aside a few tactical mistakes that he made, he was good as captain. Everyone cannot be a MS Dhoni, who came in and won the T20 World Cup directly in 2007. Give Pant some time to improve.”
It ended in heartbreak last night, but I could not be more proud of leading this team of exceptional warriors. We battled hard through the season, and while we may have fallen short on some days, we always gave 100%. pic.twitter.com/IRPGqsmPT0
— Rishabh Pant (@RishabhPant17) October 14, 2021
“If you observe DC’s performance under him in the last three games, they lost to RCB in the last over and went down to CSK in another tight contest. Against KKR, they didn’t win but they stayed in the game even though it seemed a lost cause. As a captain, these close games teach you a lot. Hopefully, Pant is retained as DC captain next season because he needs to be given some time to settle in,” Ashish Nehra captioned.
Delhi Capitals should retain Rishabh Pant as a player – Virender Sehwag
On the other hand, according to former India opener Virender Sehwag, Delhi Capitals should retain Rishabh Pant as a player whereas the decision on the captaincy can be taken later on as well. Pant has scored 419 runs in 16 games this season which came at a strike rate of 128.52.
“Pant should be retained. He is the future and will play for DC for the next 10 years just as Virat Kohli has been with Bangalore since 2008. A call on the captaincy can be taken next year after the new team is finalized. If they have a better option, they can go with him else there is Pant,” Sehwag said.
“Captaincy is such a thing that the more you do it, the more you learn. Rishabh Pant is young. Yes, he has made some mistakes but he will learn from it. When he looks back at the defeats, he will ponder upon things like whether he should have used less spin in the powerplay and so on. He will definitely learn and improve with time,” Virender Sehwag concluded.
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