New Delhi, Nov 12 (IANS) Former India batter Abhinav Mukund has urged Delhi Capitals to reconsider their batting order following Rishabh Pant’s return to the franchise, suggesting that the wicketkeeper-batter could partner KL Rahul at the top of the order in the upcoming IPL season.

Mukund believes Delhi have an abundance of players suited to the top three but fewer clearly defined middle-order options, making Pant’s batting position a key decision for the team management as it shapes its combination for the new campaign.

Putting forward his preferred opening combination, Mukund said Pant’s role should be determined by the team’s wider batting requirements. He also pointed to the number of top-order players available to Delhi, including Prithvi Shaw, Nitish Rana, Abishek Porel, Pathum Nissanka, Karun Nair and Sahil Parakh.

“I’d love for Rishabh to bat in the top three. If that is an area where Delhi Capitals are looking to address, why not have Pant and Rahul open the batting? That is something I would do first with this side because I somehow struggled to find middle-order batters, as there are so many top-order options. There’s Prithvi Shaw, Nitish Rana, Abishek Porel, Pathum Nissanka, Karun Nair and Sahil Parakh, all of whom bat in the top three,” Mukund told JioStar.

Mukund, however, acknowledged that Pant has previously been effective in a middle-order role for Delhi and said the franchise could retain him at No. 4 if that fits its plans. His assessment also took into account Pant’s recent returns at positions four and five, as well as the possibility of a different approach under the incoming support staff.

“And then you want a batter like Rishabh Pant to bat at the top because you’ve bought him now. You have seen that he hasn’t had much success at four and five in the last two years. Maybe at Delhi, it would change because, in his earlier years at Delhi, he was very successful as a middle-order batter. So, if you want to bat him at four, keep him at four. Then you can use all your multiple other options. It’s also a case of new support staff, Dada, Yuvi Paa and all of them. So, you don’t know what their strategy is. We’ll have to wait and see what sort of team they’ll build,” he added.

Beyond the batting order, Mukund also questioned Delhi’s decision to trade T Natarajan to Sunrisers Hyderabad in exchange for Zeeshan Ansari. He felt the franchise already had spin-bowling options with similar attributes, particularly Vipraj Nigam, and raised concerns over how many specialist spinners Delhi could accommodate in their playing XI alongside Axar Patel.

“I was very surprised when they released, or rather traded, Natarajan for Ansari because they’ve already got a Vipraj Nigam who’s very similar, a leggie, who can also bat. Axar Patel, Vipraj, how many more spinners are you going to field? So, I thought SRH were better off with that trade than DC getting in Zeeshan Ansari. I don’t get that trade either,” he stated.

--IANS

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