Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant. (Photo: BCCI)

Ricky Ponting, former Australian captain and the current head coach of the Delhi Capitals, is expecting swashbuckling wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant to emulate his performances of the last season in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League.

Rishabh Pant was one of the cornerstones behind the Delhi Capitals resurgence last year as they reached the playoffs stage for the first time since 2012. Pant amassed 488 runs in 16 games at an average of 37.53 and a strike-rate of 162.66 in IPL 2019 and Ponting reckoned that the southpaw has turned a corner in the past one week of training and is looking primed for yet another great season with the bat.

“Pant, during the last week, has really turned the corner well and I would expect him to perform as well as he did last year,” Ricky Ponting said during the virtual press-conference.

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‘We have our bases covered’- Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting, IPL 2020
Delhi Capitals [Photo-IPLT20]
Delhi Capitals have a good combination of youth and experience in their line-up for the upcoming season and they would be under pressure to maintain or even better their performances of the last season and hopefully make it to the finals for the first time in their history.

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But Ricky Ponting reckoned that the coaching group does not believe in putting undue pressure on the players.

“In DC, we as a coaching group don’t put added pressure on the players. We like to take as much as possible pressure off them. We never expect any such thing from them which they don’t expect from themselves,” Ponting said.

Ponting further heaped praise on Shikhar Dhawan, who had a brilliant season last year, besides adding that the batting-unit has a lot of depth and options to choose from.

“We really have a balanced side. There is a lot of competition for middle-order slots. Rahane gives us more depth to our batting. Shikhar had as good a last season as anybody. Prithvi has been training very well. Shreyas has had his best 12 months for the Indian team. We have Pant, Hetmyer and Alex Carey (both left-handers), which gives us a good mix of left-right combinations. We have our bases covered,” Ponting added.

Delhi Capitals will kickstart their IPL 2020 campaign against Kings XI Punjab on September 20.