IPL 2026: ‘We play this venue as an away venue’- DC coach’s explosive remark after home struggles

Delhi Capitals (ANI Photo)

Delhi Capitals (DC) have struggled at their home venue, the Arun Jaitley Stadium, throughout IPL 2026, but ended their home campaign on a winning note, beating Rajasthan Royals on Sunday to keep their IPL 2026 playoff chances alive, albeit narrowly. However, DC’s dismal home record (five losses and two wins) this season was a major talking point during the post-match press conference, and head coach Hemang Badani had some blunt words. After securing victory against RR, DC head coach Hemang Badani said, “We’ve stopped discussing the surface,” and as far as he is concerned, “we play this venue as an away venue.” For Badani, the contrast between the team’s performance at home and away has been stark. “If you are able to break the season into two halves about what’s happened at home and what’s happened away, we have had four wins in six games away, and we have primarily struggled at home,” Badani noted during the post-match press conference. Five losses and just two wins at home this season make Badani’s frustration seem justified. They have once had their 264 chased down with seven balls to spare, and in the very next match, been bowled out for 75. With just two wins, it reflects a baffling 71.4% loss percentage at home — the second-worst among the 10 teams in this IPL edition.

Here is the list of IPL 2026 home records of all the teams:

“You generally would ideally look at the grass that’s available on the surface, the texture of the surface, the colour of the surface. But each time we’ve turned up here, we’ve got something very different. So it is what it is. We accept it and move on.” Badani explained that the three pitches used in Delhi for the matches were inconsistent and had not been used more than once. “One match we’re out for 60 (75), another on 150, another on 260. So we don’t know how to consistently play on pitch No. 4, No. 5, or No. 6. We’ve played on three surfaces and if you look at the numbers, they are all over the place. That is difficult for you to prepare.” Reflecting on Sunday’s encounter, which kept them alive in the playoff race, Badani highlighted how the surface played a pivotal role in the match’s complexion. “Speaking of this game, I think even if you look at their innings, they were 160 for 2 [after 14 overs] and then they hardly got runs in the end — I think they got about 33 in the last six and we picked up [six more] wickets,” Badani said. “The same happened to us where we slowed down a little bit but we were cautious because we had a [target] available to us. They had to set a target and we were just looking to create the game because the ball was starting to reverse. The ball was holding a bit on the surface [too]. It wasn’t easy to bat once the ball got older and hence [we decided] to take the game deep; go hard at the top but take the game deep in the end.” The question had been asked before, and the DC head coach was asked about it again: should the BCCI allow IPL teams to have control over their pitches to give them home advantage? Even cricket expert Sanjay Manjrekar also said that IPL teams should have their say on how the pitch might behave over the course of the season during Sportstar’s podcast. For a team fighting to stay in the playoffs race, the unpredictable 22 yards in Delhi have proven to be the ultimate challenge for Badani’s men.