New Delhi: Delhi Capitals’ poor decision-making when under pressure and Kuldeep Yadav’s dip in form have emerged as the two biggest factors behind the franchise’s stuttering IPL 2026 campaign, according to former India fast bowler Irfan Pathan, who believes the side has the firepower to finish in the top four but have failed to live up to its considerable potential in the ten-team competition.
With the playoff race entering its critical phase, seventh-placed DC find themselves grappling with two stubborn problems – chopping and changing in team selection and a baffling inability to win at home. Delhi have used 20 players this season, joint-second most in IPL 2026 alongside Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants.
The chopping and changing has been most visible in the middle order, where as many as seven different batters have been tried from four to seven — Tristan Stubbs (9 innings), Sameer Rizvi (7), David Miller (6), captain Axar Patel (6), Ashutosh Sharma (3), Karun Nair (1) and Abishek Porel (1) - leaving little room for role clarity or settled batting combinations.
“I think, last year as well as this year, Delhi was a team that was to be a shoo-in contender for being in the top four. If you look at the players, they are very experienced and well-established players in this team. If you talk about KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, and even Lungi Ngidi, who did well in the World Cup, we all know that his variation gives a lot of problems to the big players.
“If you look at Miller this season, he’s also there to solve DC’s issue with a lack of experience in finishing games last year. But I think that the match against the Gujarat Titans, in which they lost on the last ball, will haunt them big time because, yes, it is not easy to take responsibility for any player and say that I will win the match, and every player wants to do that. But many times you take the wrong decision under pressure,” Pathan, an expert on JioHotstar’s ‘Champions Waali Commentary’, told IANS in a virtual interaction on Thursday. IANS
Also Read: Excess complimentary ticket demand forced BCCI to shift the final from Bengaluru, says Saikia