“It's something every opposition would know” - Ricky Ponting on Prithvi Shaw’s struggles against left-armers

Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting has admitted that Prithvi Shaw has some issues when it comes to tackling left-arm pacers. He added that the think tank will need to work with him as oppositions would be aware of the batter’s weakness.

Shaw was dismissed for a duck in Delhi’s IPL 2023 clash against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Saturday, April 8. Coming in as the ‘Impact Player’ after DC were set a target of 200, the youngster nicked a delivery from Trent Boult to the keeper.

At a post-match press conference following Delhi’s 57-run loss, Ponting shared his thoughts on Shaw’s batting. He conceded:

“Probably it was the moving ball that worried him today (Saturday). If any of you guys were at training yesterday (Friday) and watched him bat, he looked like a million dollars. So, his preparation was great. It's probably something we need to think about.

"He's got a poor record now against left-armers, it's something every opposition would know, it's something that we need to work on with him.” Ponting added. “But as I said we're not going to point fingers at one person, we don't do that at Delhi Capitals. We're all in this together and have to play better as a group of 11-12 to get the results we're after."

Before his duck against RR, Shaw had registered scores of 12 and seven in DC’s first two matches. He was cleaned up Mark Wood in the game against Lucknow and fell to a bouncer from Mohammed Shami in the match against Gujarat Titans.

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“We are a long way off right now” - Ricky Ponting

DC’s loss to Rajasthan on Saturday was their third defeat in a row in IPL 2023. Reflecting on the team’s struggles, the head coach admitted that they have failed to execute plans, but could not point a finger at why things are going wrong. Ponting commented:

"We are a long way off right now. I can't put my finger on why because I watch these boys train and prepare. Their work has been really good, their training has been great, but it hasn't come across in terms of results yet on the field.

"If I could put my finger on it, I'd do something to change it. We need to do some more soul-searching as a group and talk about it. Maybe not tonight. I'll just let the guys have a think of it. We may address it the next day, but we need to turn it around pretty quickly. Three games in and no wins…you can't get afford to get off to bad starts in the IPL."

Speaking specifically about Delhi’s performance against Rajasthan, Ponting stated that they got off to extremely poor starts with both bat and ball. The Aussie legend stated:

“You look at our first two overs with the ball, they were none for 32 with eight fours and nothing else, it says our execution with the ball was way below what it needs to be. So, if you look at the first two overs of our bowling innings and first two overs of our batting innings, you put those together and it's very hard to win games of cricket."

Delhi’s next match in IPL 2023 will be against Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday, April 11.