On Saturday, the Arun Jaitley Stadium served up a belter of a pitch, on which 429 runs were scored in 38.5 overs. Two days later, on the adjacent track that was readied for the Delhi Capitals-Royal Challengers Bengaluru game, a Test-match-like passage of play saw Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood leave the home team in tatters. Extracting swing and bounce on offer from the track, the two fast bowlers snared three wickets each with the new ball as Delhi stumbled to 8 for six.
The home team never recovered from the shocking blow, eventually setting a target of just 76 runs, which RCB closed in 39 balls.
Amid questions aplenty, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan ripped into Delhi's batting strategy of not picking Prithvi Shaw and Abhishek Porel in the starting XI. “We discussed during our pre show abt Prithvi Shaw & Abhishek Porel. Want to understand the thinking of not to play one of them," he posted on social media after Delhi lost by nine wickets to slip to the bottom half of the table. It was Delhi's third straight loss this season, and they have managed just one win in their last six matches.
Why did Pathan raise a question on Shaw's absence?
Delhi Capitals had signed Pathum Nissanka at the auction last December after his impressive performance in T20 cricket throughout 2025, during which he averaged 34.18 and struck at 158. He continued his form in 2026, scoring a century against Australia in the T20 World Cup, thus giving Delhi the confidence to back the Sri Lanka batter for the opening spot alongside KL Rahul.
Nissanka did get off to quick starts in the IPL 2026, but failed to convert any of those into big scores. In seven games this season, he managed only 147 runs.
With Delhi expected to replace Nissanka for the match against the RCB, many, including Pathan had backed Shaw or Porel as a top-order batter. But the management backed 18-year-old Sahil Parakh for the role. In fact, DC's director of cricket, Venugopal Rao, was of high praise for the youngster before the start of the season, and even believes he could play for India one day. But the debut lasted just two balls as Bhuvneshwar Kumar yorked out the rookie in the second ball of the match.
Pathan reckoned Shaw or Porel would have been a better fit in the line-up. The Maharashtra batter had a decent outing in the last Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament, where he scored two fifties. Porel performed a tad better, with a tally of 225 runs in seven innings for Bengal at a strike rate of 175, including two half-centuries.
Porel came in as an Impact Sub on Monday against the RCB as he replaced Parakh after Delhi went six down. He was the top scorer for Delhi, with 30 runs, which included a 43-run partnership with David Miller.