New Delhi, May 18: Delhi Capitals head coach Hemang Badani praised senior pacer Australian quick Mitchell Starc for his influence on younger players after the team kept its IPL play-off hopes alive with a home win over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday.
The five-wicket victory took Delhi Capitals to 12 points and seventh place in the standings, with the side now needing to win its final league match against Kolkata Knight Riders on May 24 to stay in contention for a play-off berth.
Badani said Starc’s professionalism and preparation made him one of the finest role models in the game.
Starc took four wickets and it was his three-wicket over that tilted the game in Capitals’ favour after Royals had a flying start.
“He’s possibly one of the best role models anyone can have in sport. His work ethic, his preparation before the game, with his own plans and his training, is above par,” Badani said at the post-match press conference.
“I don’t even see that with a lot of the younger boys. That’s the reason why he’s sustained for so long.”
The DC coach also highlighted Starc’s role in mentoring younger bowlers in the squad.
“He’s always talking to them, trying to pass on knowledge, how can you do reverse swing, how do I hold lengths, what do I do when a batter is going hard. There’s immense conversation that Starcy brings to the table,” he said.
Badani said the franchise had brought Starc into the squad because of his ability to contribute across all phases of an innings.
“He was somebody who liked pressure, somebody who could hit a long ball and at the same time bowl through all three phases. If required, he could even bowl in the power play, which you haven’t seen much of it yet,” he said.
“And if you go back and see the recent Ashes series, he single-handedly won them the Ashes.”
Referring to recent team changes, Badani said the management had opted to back younger players after some senior members failed to deliver consistently.
“We just felt that we needed fresh minds, fresh legs. A couple of our senior players unfortunately haven’t had the run that we would have ideally liked them to have,” he said.
“And hence we felt that it was maybe time for us to switch to the younger boys.”
Badani admitted that reading the nature of pitches at the home venue had been a major challenge for the team throughout the season.
“We’ve stopped discussing the surface. We play this venue as another venue. It hasn’t been conducive to our style of play. At many times, we have not been able to figure out what the surface is like,” he said.
“Each time we’ve turned up here, we’ve got something very different. So it is what it is. We accept it and move on.”
The former India batter also expressed frustration over the uncertainty surrounding player availability due to decisions taken by overseas cricket boards.
“Ideally, I would want my players to be available to me from day one. But if there are certain things decided by associations and governing bodies, there’s very little that we can do,” he said, referring to availability issues involving Australian players.
“Because if Cricket Australia does not release him, which was also the case with Hazlewood, also the case with Pat Cummins, there’s little a coach or any franchise can do about that. Hopefully we have a solution to it in the future.”
Badani said DC’s biggest issue this season had been finding a settled opening combination.
“That’s why we tried different options. But now with Abishek Porel giving us a hundred-run partnership, it might feel that maybe we could have done things differently. Hindsight is a beautiful thing,” he said. (PTI)
