Hemang Badani, the head coach of the Delhi Capitals, acknowledged that his team struggled to play consistently throughout the season and suffered as a result of missing out on important opportunities in pivotal games.
With seven victories and an equal number of losses, DC finished the 2026 IPL season in sixth place, missing the playoffs for the seventh consecutive year.
DC was on the verge of winning a number of games but fell short. They were unable to defend a huge score of 264 against Punjab Kings and suffered a devastating one-run loss at home against Gujarat Titans.
To make matters worse, they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings due to numerous missed catches.
“There were many games that I genuinely felt that could go either way. And we did not seize those moments. One being the Gujarat game, we lost the game by one run. The 264 is again something that you would fancy yourself to defend that score. Even with CSK, we dropped some catches. With SRH, we dropped some catches at a crucial time of the game,” PTI quoted Badani as saying at the post-match press conference on Sunday.
Throughout the season, their bowling attack lacked penetration, and their batting unit regularly lost wickets in large numbers. With just 64 wickets in 14 games, DC bowlers had the joint-lowest total of any side.
“Even with us batting, we did not many a times hold on to our wickets. We have lost too many in clusters, if you go back and see the stats. And as a bowling side, you ideally want to pick a lot of wickets. If you see the stats with sides picking wickets, I think we are right at the bottom. I think a culmination of all of it is the reason why we are at 14 points and we could have been a lot better than that,” Badani said.
The Delhi team also suffered over the majority of the season due to the absence of pace spearhead Mitchell Starc, who had been their best bowler the previous year. Even without the Australian fast bowler, Badani maintained that DC still had enough chances to qualify.
“He is obviously a fabulous player. He is obviously somebody who has done exceedingly well in all formats and him not being available to us for the first nine games does hamper our progress. But I think on the whole, even without him, we had our moments.
“Even without him, we had our chances to qualify. Yes, Starc does make a huge difference. But I think as a side, I genuinely feel that if we had played those small, small, little, little margins and if we had seized those little margins, we would have still been alive in the tournament,” he said.
DC and Punjab Kings are the only two original IPL teams who have not yet won the IPL trophy. The Capitals’ finest result occurred in 2020 when they advanced to their first final and finished second. In that edition, they were defeated by the Mumbai Indians by five wickets.
