Kotla feels gone: Hemang Badani's brutal verdict on Delhi Capitals' home woes

Delhi Capitals finally put an end to their miserable run at home with a decisive five-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in their final league match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, keeping their hopes of the IPL 2026 playoffs alive.

Yet even the victory could not mask the frustration simmering in the camp over what head coach Hemang Badani believes has become a deeply troubling rift between the team and its own home conditions.

DC vs RR: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD

As has often been the case this season, Badani did not shy away from addressing Delhi’s troubled relationship with the Cauldron’s surface. DC have managed just two wins in seven games at home this season, losing five in a row between them, despite building a squad expected to thrive in familiar conditions.

“We stopped discussing the surface. We play it like an outdoor course,” Badani said after the win.

That one line perhaps best captured Delhi Capitals’ bizarre home campaign in IPL 2026. For the second time this season, and this time more bluntly, Badani suggested that DC had been effectively stripped of any meaningful home advantage.

The numbers only reinforce his argument. Delhi’s home season has started and ended with wins, but the five defeats sandwiched between them have left them with a staggering 71.4 per cent loss rate at home, the worst of all 10 IPL teams this season.

“If you split the season into two halves, what happened at home and what happened away, we had four wins in six away games and mainly struggled at home,” Badani said.

The trend goes beyond this season. Since the start of IPL 2025, Delhi Capitals have won only three of their 12 matches in Delhi.

“That pretty much tells you what this surface was like for us,” Badani said. “It didn’t help our style of play. A lot of times we weren’t able to figure out what the surface was like.”

While franchises have historically preferred surfaces suited to the strengths of the teams they field in the auction, curators are not required to meet these expectations under BCCI regulations. However, Badani’s frustration seemed less from bias and more from unpredictability.

Delhi have built their team around spin, which has played a major role at home, with Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam expected to dominate Delhi’s games. Instead, the conditions offered little help. In seven home matches this season, DC’s spin trio have managed just nine wickets while the runs conceded at an economical 10.07 and an average of 57.11.

The inconsistency in pitch behavior only added to the confusion.

On one surface Delhi almost chased down 210. On the other they were dismissed for 75 rounds. On a parallel streak where DC smashed 264 earlier this season, the opposition chased down the target with ease, while in another game on a similar wicket, Delhi collapsed for 142.

“One game we are out for 60 (75), the next for 150 and the next for 260,” Badani said. “So nobody has a consistent understanding of how the No. 4 pitch is going to play or how the No. 5 or 6 pitch is going to play.

The inability to predict conditions made tactical preparation extremely difficult, according to Badani. Team combinations, bowling balance and even Impact Player plans were repeatedly discarded as the side struggled to predict how the pitch would behave.

“Every time we’ve come here, we’ve had something very different. But that’s the way it is. We accept it and move on,” he said.

Badani clarified that he is not demanding that franchises have complete control over pitches, but insisted that consistency is essential if teams are expected to field teams strategically.

“If it has to be a consistent decision for everybody, I don’t mind,” he said. “But then at least it should be where you know what to expect. When you look at the stats of all three pitches, you’d think there’s hardly any difference, but if you know if it’s a 180 or a 200 or a 260 pitch, then you structure the side accordingly.”

– The end

Issued by:

Saurabh Kumar

Published on:

18 May 2026 08:41 IST