IPL 2026: Delhi Capitals’ batters have failed to take responsibility, says Venugopala Rao

For Delhi Capitals, IPL 2026 has been the same old wine in a new bottle. The franchise seems to enter every season brimming with optimism about breaking free from the shackles of the past, but invariably falls into a familiar abyss of despair. Even by its subpar standards, the 19th edition has been a conspicuous low, with the failures of the batting unit in particular acquiring a tedious pattern.

Venugopala Rao, DC’s Director of Cricket, said after the team’s loss to Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday (May 8, 2026) that individuals in the batting department haven’t taken responsibility.

“Everybody has experience (at this level). At the end of the day, you need to read the situation and conditions,” Venugopala said. “Only when you adapt, you can win matches. We can’t keep sending messages to the batting group. The biggest challenge is responsibility. When things fail as a batting unit, you need to take responsibility. You have to say, ‘I’ll do it, rather than somebody else will do it.’ I think that is missing.”

With three games left in the league phase, Venugopala echoed skipper Axar Patel’s views at the post-match presentation about the rest of the campaign being an opportunity to try the bench.

“We will try the bench. When the skipper says something like that, we definitely want to try,” he said.

At the same time, DC will have to find a way of curbing its losing streak and ending the season on a high. Otherwise, it risks alienating a shrinking fan base even further.