Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg has pointed out the main weakness of the Delhi Capitals (DC) team ahead of the IPL 2024.
While Hogg said Delhi Capitals have one of the two best bowling attacks this season, he reckons DC has huge question marks over their batting department and opined that Delhi has been the worst team when it comes to death-overs batting in recent times.
The Delhi Capitals finished 9th last season, led by David Warner, who was often waging a lone battle and got some support from only Axar Patel, who was bizarrely used lower in the order by Ricky Ponting. Other DC batters than these two were disappointing in the absence of Rishabh Pant. DC had a death-overs run rate of only 8.57 last season, which was the worst among all 10 teams.
Speaking in his YouTube video, Brad Hogg said, “DC’s weakness is their batting. They do get off to good starts in the powerplay, but they lose too many wickets and that puts too much pressure on trying to have wickets in hand for the final four to five overs, where they have been the worst-performing team over the last couple of years.”
Delhi Capitals really needed Pant to expose spin bowling: Brad Hogg
This fragile and inconsistent batting department of Delhi Capitals from last season is going to get a massive boost as Rishabh Pant is set for his comeback. While there is no certainty that Pant will be among runs straightaway – he’s been out of action since December 2022 – his being an aggressive left-hander will give Delhi a feel-good factor when it comes to taking down spinners in the middle-overs.
Hogg explained: “Pant coming back has added more stability in the middle overs, he is very dominant against spin bowling, and they really needed someone to expose spin bowling in the middle overs.”
Pant has been given the clearance by the BCCI medical team to play as a wicket-keeper, however, Delhi might ease him in his comeback and initially play him as a batter and captain only.
Delhi Capitals will kick start their IPL 2024 campaign on March 23 against Punjab Kings in Mohali.
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