After Delhi Capitals defeated Rajasthan Royals in their home match on Sunday to maintain their IPL playoff aspirations, head coach Hemang Badani commended experienced bowler Australian fast Mitchell Starc for his influence on younger players.
Delhi Capitals now need to win their last league game against Kolkata Knight Riders on May 24 to remain in the running for a playoff spot. The five-wicket victory moved the team to 12 points and seventh position in the standings.
According to Badani, Starc is one of the best role models in the game because of his professionalism and preparedness. After the Royals got off to a quick start, Starc took four wickets, and his three-wicket over helped the Capitals win.
“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. I don’t even see that with a lot of the younger boys. That’s the reason why he’s sustained for so long,” PTI quoted Badani as saying at the post-match press conference.
Starc’s involvement in coaching the team’s younger bowlers was also emphasized by the DC coach.
“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.
According to Badani, Starc was included to the team because of his ability to contribute at every stage 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. And if you go back and see the recent Ashes series, he single-handedly won them the Ashes,” he said.
Badani mentioned the recent changes to the team and stated that the management had chosen to support younger players because certain veteran players had not performed well on a regular basis.
“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. And hence we felt that it was maybe time for us to switch to the younger boys,” he said.
Throughout the season, Badani acknowledged that one of the team’s biggest challenges had been figuring out the type of pitches at home.
“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. 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,” he said.
The uncertainty surrounding player availability as a result of choices made by foreign cricket boards was another source of aggravation for the former Indian batsman.
“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.”
Finding a reliable opening combination has been DC’s biggest problem this season, according to Badani.
“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.
