Ricky Ponting has named an Indian player at Delhi Capitals who is not "an automatic selection" in the playing XI, but is working on improving his game.
Delhi Capitals are gearing for their first match of the 2020 Indian Premier League season, which takes place later tonight. Shreyas Iyer's side will be taking on the Kings XI Punjab, led by KL Rahul.
DC enjoyed a fruitful IPL season in 2019 where they finished third in the table, losing in the play-off to Chennai Super Kings. The side will be aiming to keep up the momentum when they return to action tonight.
The Delhi Capitals head coach, Ricky Ponting has been vocal about the side's combinations ahead of the new season. He talked about the batting order and how he would use his players -- Shimron Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis in particular. On Saturday, Ponting opened up on his thoughts about Ajinkya Rahane, the side's new recruit.
“Ajinkya isn’t an automatic selection but his preparation has been great," Ponting told InsideSport in an interaction.
"I have worked closely with him to improve his T20 batting but I have already had the conversation with him regarding this and as far as the first match goes he is certainly in the mix of things.”
Ajinkya Rahane was bought by Delhi Capitals in 2019 after he was released by Rajasthan Royals. The Capitals' top-order is packed with star Indian players like Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.
Talking about Pant in the same interaction, Ponting siad that the wicketkeeper-batsman knows about his responsibilities.
“Rishabh Pant knows about his responsibilities but at the same time, he isn’t a person you would want to push too hard. I am very hard on him when it comes to the way he goes about his batting and preparations. He is the sort of guy you can’t train much he will perform when the situation comes around,” said the former Australian captain.
