IPL 2026 – DC must ‘forget everything and move on’ – Piyush Chawla

“There will be a bit of panic for sure, knowing the history of Delhi Capitals. But now is not the right time (for that),” Chawla said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut programme. “They have to sit together, discuss it, and they have to start fresh – because they started quite well in the tournament, and it’s not like in three weeks, the team has changed or the way of playing has changed.”

“Later, at the end of the tournament, when they look back on it, those two points will definitely haunt them if they don’t qualify (for the play-offs),” Chawla said. “So now is the time (when) they just have to forget everything and move on, start playing positive cricket, and just make sure there’s a very positive environment in the dressing room because that plays a big part.

“When things don’t go your way, it’s very, very easy for any team to just sputter and just talk behind their backs that this guy would have done that, this guy would have done that, he would have taken that single, this guy would have taken that catch.”

In the previous season, DC started with a four-game winning streak, but won only three of their next ten games. They eventually finished fifth and missed out on the play-offs, which they last qualified for in 2021.

“The hardest thing (for DC) is to just get together, sit down and talk about it, and just say, ‘Okay, now it’s gone.’ These things are not in our control, and still we’re in it,” Chawla said. “We are not out of the tournament, and we are the same team that did well in the past, we won four or five games last year on the run as well and still we didn’t qualify. But this year we have to change history, and just go there, express ourselves, and play with a positive intention.

“That’s all you can say because it’s not about the skill level here now because everyone is very skilled – that’s why they play here – it’s just about being positive and the leader has to take that initiative, and make sure everyone is kept together.”