Delhi Capitals head coach Hemang Badani acknowledged that his team couldn’t find the kind of steady rhythm needed to keep winning consistently across the 2026 IPL season. He pointed out that DC paid for failing to convert crucial phases in several tight contests. In the end, the Capitals finished sixth in the standings with seven wins and seven losses, missing the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
Badani said there were multiple games where Delhi looked capable of taking the result, yet slipped at the final hurdle. One such moment came in their home match against Gujarat Titans, where they were edged out by a single run. DC also struggled in another high-scoring encounter, unable to defend a huge total of 264 against Punjab Kings.
Adding to the disappointment, Badani highlighted that dropped catches repeatedly swung matches in DC’s favour-less moments, particularly in defeats to Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad. In his view, those lapses at critical times proved decisive.
“There were many games that I genuinely felt that could go either way. And we did not seize those moments,” Badani said during the post-match press conference on Sunday.
“One being the Gujarat game, we lost the game by one run. The 264 is again something that you would fancy yourself to defend that score. Even with CSK, we dropped some catches. With SRH, we dropped some catches at a crucial time of the game,” he added.
Badani also referenced how DC’s batting often lost wickets in bursts, which made it difficult to maintain momentum and build platforms to finish strongly. At the same time, he felt the bowling unit lacked the sustained impact needed to control matches for long stretches.
Across 14 games, DC bowlers took only 64 wickets, which was the joint-lowest wicket haul among all teams in the tournament.
“Even with us batting, we did not many a times hold on to our wickets. We have lost too many in clusters, if you go back and see the stats,” Badani said.
He further explained that, from a bowling perspective, teams aim to keep taking wickets and restricting the opposition’s scoring. In DC’s case, he believed the numbers reflected a persistent problem throughout the season.
“And as a bowling side, you ideally want to pick a lot of wickets. If you see the stats with sides picking wickets, I think we are right at the bottom.”
Badani concluded that the combined effect of those issues ultimately led to their final position in the table, and that the points tally could have been higher if key moments had been handled more effectively.
“I think a culmination of all of it is the reason why we are at 14 points and we could have been a lot better than that.”
He also pointed to the absence of pace spearhead Mitchell Starc for much of the campaign. Starc had been DC’s standout bowler the previous year, and his limited availability for the majority of the season, according to Badani, hindered the team’s progress.
Still, Badani insisted that DC had opportunities to qualify even without the Australian fast bowler. He acknowledged Starc’s quality, but maintained that the team could have stayed in contention by tightening up small margins in key situations.
“He is obviously a fabulous player. He is obviously somebody who has done exceedingly well in all formats and him not being available to us for the first nine games does hamper our progress. But I think on the whole, even without him, we had our moments,” Badani said.
“Even without him, we had our chances to qualify. Yes, Starc does make a huge difference. But I think as a side, I genuinely feel that if we had played those small, small, little, little margins and if we had seized those little margins, we would have still been alive in the tournament,” he added.
With their trophyless drought continuing, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings remain the only original franchises in the IPL yet to lift the title. DC’s best run in the competition came in 2020, when they finished as runners-up after reaching their maiden final. In that season, they lost to Mumbai Indians by five wickets.
