Delhi Capitals dealt with the injuries of two key players, R Ashwin and Amit Mishra, in the first half of the tournament quite efficiently, but the third seems to have left them, well, paralyzed. Rishabh Pant, who possibly injured his hamstring during his sixth game, did not make it to seventh, against the Mumbai Indians, and his captain Shreyas Iyer later said the doctor told him that Pant will be resting for a week.
This injury turned out to be very important because the only other specialist goalkeeper on the Capitals team is a foreign player, Alex Carey, who required a double change. To accommodate Carey, Capitals had to sideline Shimron Hetmyer, in whom they had invested six games and who had started to deliver results in the low-middle order. Assuming Pant gets fit in a week, Capitals still has two games to play in that time, and only one at the end of the week. There is less room for error now that the tournament has entered the second half. On the line there is not just a place in the next round, but a result in the top two, giving you two chances to qualify for the final.
Here are the three options from Capitals on how to handle the absence of Pant.
Do what they did against the Indians of Mumbai
If they don’t come out of the box, Capitals will have to keep sacrificing Hetmyer and expect Carey to do the job Hetmyer does with the bat. That still leaves them short of the power that Pant brought in in the toughest hitting position: No. 4. His Indian replacement, Ajinkya Rahane, struggles once the field is extended, which is why he was sent to bat at No. 3. , interrupting the flow of the ball. tickets and having Iyer sacrifice the position in which he has flourished. With two anchors, Dhawan and Rahane, stuck in the Powerplay, Capitals also had to deal with their thinner Powerplay as their coach Ricky Ponting asked them to show more intention on the shift of the month.
Make Hetmyer stay
Hetmyer is an occasional wicketkeeper. So occasional that his profile page on ESPNcricinfo doesn’t even mention it. An official match from List A and ODI Under-19 have started as designated wicketkeeper. Would you like to give him the big gloves for the fastest bowler in the tournament and two skilled spinners?
Even that solves only half of their problems, unless they feel confident playing Lalit Yadav before Rahane. Yadav hit 150 in the last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but he hit just 67 balls, which tells you he’s more of a bowler and therefore not the ideal replacement for a specialized hitter.
Bring a new guardian
It’s highly unlikely that another team will lend a hand by offering an Indian wicketkeeper on a mid-season transfer, especially since teams want to protect their plans from other locker rooms, but have another opportunity available to them. Mishra is out of the tournament and they can opt for an Indian wicketkeeper. KS Bharat has previously been among your reserves. They could ask for him. Bharat doesn’t have a great T20 record, but reached 139 in the last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. There is no other prominent wicketkeeper-batsman in the country who is not already on another IPL team. Bharat is a meager prize compared to Rahane, but that could free Hetmyer.
However, this is not so simple. A replacement player will have to serve the quarantine period and may not be available to play during the week Pant is expected to be on the bench. Still, it’s nice to have a backup ready in case Pant doesn’t recover in time or gets injured again.
Given the available resources and the logistical issues of flying in a replacement, playing Carey and Rahane might seem like the most practical option right now. Unless there is an influential negotiator, know that capitals know who can make an offer to another team that they can’t turn down. Meanwhile, the capitals hope that the one-week break will be enough for Pant to return to the park and that they do not lose both games this week.
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