One of the major complaints of the underperforming teams (read Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders) has been the absence of friendly pitches when playing at home. KKR captain Nitish Rana has been quite vocal about not being given the surfaces that would have helped them maximise the impact their set of quality spinners could have had.
Eden Gardens curator has summarily dismissed the argument, instead he asks, tell me the clause which makes it mandatory for him to prepare pitches suiting the home team.
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DC have a similar complaint. They think the slow surfaces at the Arun Jaitley Stadium have proved to be quite a challenge to their batters.
DC captain David Warner made it clear he wasn’t happy with the pitches back home after DC produced their first 200-plus total of the season which came in an away game in Dharamshala earlier this week.
DC assistant coach Shane Watson agrees with Warner and in fact, has put the blame squarely on the pitches in Delhi for their sorry show in IPL 2023.
Watson argues the makeup of DC’s batting order (top-order to be precise) is overseas heavy including captain Warner, Phillip Salt, Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh and Rilee Rossouw and hence, their struggle at home.
“The pitches here in Delhi haven’t been great, to be honest,” Watson responded to a query from CricketNext during a media interaction on Friday.
“They (pitches) probably are great if you have got a different setup to your team – if you have got a lot of Indian top order batters then that could probably suit that team. That’s not the makeup of our squad,” he added.
Watson points out how their top three fired in unison on a Dharamshala pitch that had bounce and the ball didn’t turn a lot.
“So, as we saw the other night, when we are playing on a good, traditional wicket, the ball goes through nicely, it’s a true surface, the ball doesn’t turn a lot, we saw what exactly can happen,” he said.
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A cursory glance at DC’s home record would have you believe Watson is on the money with his assessment. Out of six matches at home this season so far, DC have managed to win just two. Of their five victories, three have come in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Dharamshala.
“In our batting line-up, we’ve got overseas players (with Prithvi Shaw) and that’s our strength. But when we come here to Delhi, unfortunately, because of the amount of cricket that’s been on this wicket block – it’s very dry, there’s not much grass on it – if any which just exposes the setup of our batting at the moment in particular,” Watson said.
Watson could be right with his argument but the inconsistency of DC’s batters cannot escape the postmortem. They haven’t exactly set the stage on fire when playing in away matches with Dharamshala being the exception.
Watson though is hopeful that come next season, with DC sporting a similar squad, the pitches will be more conducive for their batters.
“And hopefully, we are going to have a similar squad next season, the conditions will be more suitable to the makeup of our team. And there will be more true batting surfaces which then will show the truly world-class batters that we do have,” he said.
Out of the playoffs contention, DC next host Chennai Super Kings in what will be their final match of the season and a team that boasts of a quality spin department.
Watson though adds that the slowness of the pitch in Delhi isn’t an excuse for their sorry show that began with five defeats in a row. However, it didn’t help their cause either.
“That’s not an excuse for us for not performing well. It just made it more difficult for our batters to be at their best because of the challenging condition. Hopefully, next season, there will be a big change because with the make of our team, it doesn’t make it easy for us,” Watson added.