Following an 11-wicket win over Mumbai Indians at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium here on Sunday, Delhi Daredevils coach Ricky Ponting lauded 20-year-old Rishabh Pant for an 'outstanding season' before expressing his disappointment over a lack of consistency displayed by some of the other batsmen throughout the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier league.
"It's been an outstanding season for him (Pant)," Ponting noted. "Obviously he is wearing the orange cap right now and it would be great if he can manage to retain the orange cap by the end of season.
"It is a great personal recognition for his season but if we had an even contribution from a few more of the top order we could have been a threat," the former Australian international added.
Rishabh Pant, the current holder of the Orange Cup for the present edition of the IPls has tallied a total of 684 runs in 14 matches, including five half-centuries and a hundred.
Ponting then went on to acknowledge the efforts put by the Indian batsmen in his lineup, and remained hopeful towards the prospect of these players having a long and remarkable career with the Delhi franchise.
"We can't blame the Indian players," the Daredevils coach said. "They have been outstanding, we can't complain."
"Prithvi Shaw, Sandeep are some of the talented players we have and I hope they will have a long and successful IPl career here with us," Ponting added.
Talking about the team's captain Shreyas Iyer, the Australian coach said, "He had a very good season but there was not enough consistency for our batting group to be up there with the leading teams.
Iyer had found himself shouldering the captain's responsibility earlier in the tournament after Gautam Gambhir had stepped down from the designation on account of the team's poor form.
When quizzed about how Gambhir's decision affected the team, Ponting answered, "Gautam's stepping down didn't have any negative impact on our team. It probably came as a shock to the players and me. It was a courageous decision, you don't see such a decision everyday. It gave opportunity to Prithvi Shaw to play and Shreyas stepping up for the captaincy. It was a daunting thing to do to captain and I think he handled the challenge well."