There is no hope for Delhi Capitals this Indian Premier League (IPL) season either.
On Saturday night against Chennai Super Kings at the Chidambaram Stadium, they came up with another tame performance. A few days ago, they couldn’t score two off two balls against Gujarat Titans, and if you thought after that match they would return to winning ways in style, once again you overestimated them.
Against CSK, a winless team until Saturday, they went from bad to worse. In the 10th over, they committed two cardinal sins. First, KL Rahul couldn’t effect a simple run out. He couldn’t grab the ball and allowed Ayush Mhatre, who was on 9 at that time, to score 59 in the end.
In the same over, Pathum Nissanka then dropped a catch off the bat of Sanju Samson and the Indian batsman went on to score 115*. At the time of Nissanka’s ‘brilliant’ effort, he was on 52.
Still, CSK could only score 212/2. A nothing score these days, of course, if you are a solid team like Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Kings, Royal Challengers Bengaluru or even Sunrisers Hyderabad.
One would have thought that after the faux pas against GT, Rahul and David Miller would redeem themselves for sure. Once again, DC fans overestimated them. Miller was so bad that he even dropped a catch off the bowling of Mukesh Kumar.
There was no real contribution from him with the bat either. He just wasn’t there. Rahul is the biggest Indian player in DC’s ranks, but more often than not, he doesn’t look serious about his role. There is no killer instinct in him, and it appears that he just does his basic job and waits to head back to the hotel after the match.
The higher-ups at the franchise don’t care!
But more than the players, it’s the franchise that’s the problem. DC had a press conference in New Delhi days before the 2026 IPL season opener, and captain Axar Patel, head coach Hemang Badani and director of cricket Venugopal Rao were there to address the journalists.
They were all casual. More interested in making funny remarks. Rao, when asked what Delhi weren’t doing right that they had not won the league even once, came up with some evasive reply. “Let us win just one time, and that will put an end to all your complaints,” he said.
Axar was better, but there was no intensity in his body language. He was trying to endear himself to journalists over there, giving them selfie opportunities. He said the team never discusses the fact that they have not won the IPL ever. Well, if you don’t discuss these matters, how are you going to feel the pain of millions of fans and win the IPL ever?
Basically, it’s a horrible franchise where there is no accountability. IPL is a profitable league anyway, and they sure get their chunk of the profit regularly. This is all they are interested in. Some fans may get offended, but the truth of the matter is that something is terribly wrong with the franchise.
A franchise where ultra-competitive players, such as David Warner, and coaches like Ricky Ponting, fail to deliver, there must be something terribly wrong with the higher-ups.
Those two wins in their first two matches — against Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians — came only because their opponents were very poor. The day their opponents pick up their game even a bit, DC throws in the towel real quick. They did that last season, and there is enough evidence that they will do it again. It’s a hopeless franchise indeed.