IPL 2019: Pant crucial in death overs, says coach Ricky Pointing

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting is not worried about Rishabh Pants inconsistency and just wants the dashing wicketkeeperbatsman to play with complete freedom Once the lefthander gets going he becomes a nightmare for the bowlers but the 21yearold often gets criticised for playing rash shotsI am not going to curb the way he plays I am not going to tell him to slow down and settle down because I know if he plays his best he wins games for us Ponting said on the eve of their return leg match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden GardensI want him to go out there with pure freedom and with no other thought in the back of his head other than trying to hit the ball for sixPant smashed a 27ball 78 against Mumbai Indians in their opening game of IPL 2019 but since then hes been struggling for runs but the Aussie great hoped he would come good at the back end of the tournamentYou dont want to take that away from him but what we want from him is he has to understand that we need him batting in the last four overs of every game we playSo far the difference has been in some of the close games that we have played our best batsmen havent been in at the back end of the innings and thats what we need and certainly what we expect from our better playersWe are less than halfway through the tournament and I am sure he will win another threefour for us as we go alongWith three losses from six matches Ponting said its the batting that has let the team down We feel like weve got a really rounded attack and the bowling so far for has been pretty good right through the tournament Its been our batters who have let us down a couple of times and theyre very aware of what to expect and they are very aware of what the team needs them to do as wellWe havent been brilliant yet but I think weve got a group going forward they can play some brilliant cricket and its really exciting to be around this around this time at the moment Its about putting a team together thats got the right balance of youth and experience We feel that weve got it in our teamPonting also spoke very highly of their young South African pace gun Kagiso Rabada who is currently leading the wickettaking chart with 11 wickets to his nameKG is an exceptionally determined man Hes very intelligent Hes got great skills bowling over 150 kilometres a few timesI mean thats why you pay the big money for these overseas players he said citing examples of Rabada dismissals of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in their previous match in BangaloreDelhi young captain Shreyas Iyer may be surrounded by greats like Ponting and adviser Sourav Ganguly but the Aussie World Cup winner said the team belongs to the skipperIts 100 Shreyas Iyers team Its not the coaches team Hes the captain of our team and as you know with captains of any team once the game starts the captains the coach and so its my job and the rest of the coachs job to make sure were making his job as easy as possible he addedCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates