'There's a huge question mark on Shreyas Iyer's captaincy' - Aakash Chopra after DC's defeat against KKR

The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals, led by Shreyas Iyer, have been a force to reckon with. The team are proudly sitting on the second spot with seven wins in eleven games. They have emerged as a balanced squad in the 13th edition of the IPL and are deemed as one of the favourites to lift their maiden IPL trophy.

However, the team have faltered a bit and are low on confidence with two back-to-back failures. They registered a defeat against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by five wickets followed by the one against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 59 runs. The DC skipper Shreyas Iyer has been brilliant as a captain thus far. However, the defeat against KKR raised questions over the tactical decisions Iyer took on Saturday.

On October 25, batting first, the Knight Riders had racked up a score of 194 for the loss of six wickets owing to the batting brilliance by Nitish Rana (81 off 53) and Sunil Narine (64 off 32). Chasing the mammoth target, DC had a horrible start as they lost their first two wickets within three overs. The Capitals were never in the chase as they stumbled to 135/9 in 20 overs.

I am slightly surprised by Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy errors: Aakash Chopra

After the defeat, the former Indian opener-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra raised questions over the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer. He was surprised with the way the youngster rotated his bowlers in the middle overs.

“It was quite strange that KKR decimated the Delhi Capitals after having been annihilated themselves in their previous match. So, here there is a huge question mark on Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy.

“Now it has happened in two consecutive matches, Tushar Deshpande bowls his full quota of overs and gives 40 runs in his four overs, a similar thing happened in the last match,” Chopra said in the video uploaded on his YouTube channel.

One shocking thing in the game was that the captain didn’t use his in-form spinner Axar Patel much. The finger spinner has been brilliant so far but he got just one over to bowl in the last game.

“This time Axar bowled just the one over in which he conceded seven runs. Please don’t tell me that there were two left-handers in front of him because he has an economy of 6.5 per over against left-handers this year. So will a left-arm spinner not bowl against a left-handed batsman,” Chopra added.

“I am slightly surprised by Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy errors in consecutive matches. I never thought I will say that this season because in general, his captaincy has been very good,” concluded the former Test opener.