Former India fast bowler backs Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan despite Delhi Capitals' poor start to IPL 2023

In the first two games of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Delhi Capitals (DC) failed to put up a team performance and lost both games. However, their bowling still performed as a unit but their batting didn’t fire which led to the disastrous team performance. The Indian batters like Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan failed to tackle quality pace and have been criticized by fans and experts. Meanwhile, the bowling coach of Delhi Capitals Ajit Agarkar backed Shaw and called it unnecessary to zero in one player for the team’s failure.

In the post-match press conference, Agarkar was asked why Shaw and Sarfaraz struggle against pacers like Mark Wood and Mohammed Shami. In response, Agarkar said, "I mean they (Shaw and Sarfaraz) have got runs against fast bowling. I don't think we batted well so why point out one or two guys." Further speaking about the team’s performance Agarkar said that the whole top order needs to step up and bat well in upcoming games.

'He doesn’t learn from mistakes' - Virender Sehwag slams Prithvi Shaw 

He said, “None of our top-order players got going in both the games. We haven't had big runs at the top which some of the other teams have. No point picking individuals, collectively we haven't been good on both nights and we need to improve as we are playing against some good teams. So, a lot of credit to Gujarat but we need to bat collectively as a unit to get results.”

Earlier, after his two back-to-back failures former India batter Virender Sehwag slammed Prithvi Shaw for repeating the same mistake. While speaking with Cricbuzz Sehwag said, “He has been dismissed playing those kinds of shots so many times... but he should also learn from his mistakes, right?," Sehwag said. "Look at Shubman Gill, who played U-19 cricket with him and is now playing Test, ODIs, and T20Is for India, but Shaw is still struggling in IPL. He has to make the most of this IPL platform and score runs”, he further added.