NEW DELHI: As the Delhi Capitals team bus was going to enter the Arun Jaitley Stadium for the side's scheduled practice session on Tuesday, the heavens opened up.
The delay helped the Rishabh Pant-led DC to train in cooler conditions, and Pant and head coach Ricky Ponting could be seen having intense "talk sessions" with their fast bowlers Khaleel Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar and Ishant Sharma.
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These talks have been necessitated by the mountain of runs DC's bowlers have conceded so far. Against KKR, they gave away 272. In the next game, MI put up 234 on the scoreboard, while the latest one against SRH saw Delhi's bowlers getting smashed for 266 in 20 overs.
The Gujarat Titans batters are up next for DC's bowlers, that too on a placid pitch which saw insane hitting by batters in the ODI World Cup last year, as well as in the Women's Premier League in March.
GT captain Shubman Gill, coach Ashish Nehra and DC skipper Pant all converged around the main wicket and were seen tapping the wicket on Tuesday. The general pattern that has evolved at Kotla points to another run-fest.
Pant looks to cement T20 WC spot
One person who will look to make full use of the batting-friendly conditions is Pant himself. At the halfway stage of the tournament, Pant is DC's highest-scorer with 254 runs in 8 innings, with the runs coming at an impressive strike-rate of 150.29.
He is looking fit and shaping up well behind the stumps.
Pant is surely targeting a selection in the Indian team for the upcoming T20 World Cup. "I think his batting is getting better. He has started to get a bit more trust and belief in his body. Early in the tournament, he was a little bit apprehensive, especially with his keeping. But now, his keeping behind the stumps has been really good," coach Ponting said.
"He should definitely be there in that (World Cup) squad.
He is too good a player and can have too much of an impact on the game for India."
It's not a done deal for Pant yet. He has Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Jitesh Sharma and even the veteran Dinesh Karthik all competing for that one slot. Except for Jitesh, the others are having a good IPL season so far.
Amid all this, Pant, making a comeback after his Dec 2022 accident, will have to increase his tempo as well as consistency.
The match between the two teams in Ahmedabad - just a week back - resulted in Gujarat being bowled out for a paltry 89, and DC chasing the target down in 8.5 overs. The Capitals would love to mete out a similar treatment on Wednesday.
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