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Delhi Capitals' (DC) emerging star, Abishek Porel was underutilised in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. In the past two seasons, Porel has got the long rope but this time he remained on the bench even when DC were struggling to find the right combination. The reason behind him spending time on the sidelines? His opening partner KL Rahul reveals that the young southpaw's strike rate was an issue. On May 17, he got to open with Rahul in the run chase of 194 against Rajasthan Royals (RR). He proved naysayers wrong with a 31-ball 51, sharing a 105-run partnership with Rahul. After DC’s five-wicket win over RR, Rahul rued his young opening partner not getting enough chances. He expressed his frustration over the management’s decision without pointing a finger at them.
“Yeah, he's... the opportunities that he's gotten, he's shown everyone what he can do. Again someone who plays proper cricket shots and trying to understand the T20 game and try and, up his strike-rate, try and use that powerplay. I think we batted beautifully last season as well, but the feedback to him was that they wanted him to up that strike-rate and unfortunately, he didn't get too many chances in the beginning of the season, which is really frustrating, I could see, but he's been someone who's, been open to again experimenting. He's been talking to me, he's been talking to the coaches, and he's been working hard on his game and trying to improve that part of his batting,” Rahul told the broadcasters after the match.
Porel took on the likes of Jofra Archer, scoring at a better strike rate than Rahul who contributed with a 42-ball 56. Rahul has been no stranger to strike rate criticism. He understands that it puts extra pressure on a batter. He lauded the 23-year-old for batting exceptionally in a winning cause.
“Now that he's gotten the opportunity, I think an innings like this will give him confidence and end of the day, T20 is about confidence and belief that even with cricket shots and even with the skills that you have, you can go out there and score at 170, 200 strike-rate. And once you do that a couple of times, then you sort of, get a bit more relaxed and then start focusing on bat and ball. But for someone who's trying to achieve a higher strike-rate there's always, I feel like there's extra pressure, extra burden, but yeah, he's handled that beautifully and really happy that he could do that for the team today and the way he batted was exceptional," Rahul added.
Porel gets 3 changes in IPL 2026
Porel got his first chance to bat in IPL 2026 as an impact player ahead of Ashutosh Sharma as DC suffered a horrific batting collapse, losing six wickets for eight runs against RCB. He scored 30 runs from 33 balls, preventing DC from getting bowled out for lowest score in IPL history. Despite the rescue knock, he was dropped again. A couple of weeks later, he played against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and registered a single-digit score. From three innings this season, he has scored 86 runs at a strike rate of 122.85.
Porel benched after 2 ordinary seasons
DC management's issues were not misplaced as Porel batted in 13 innings last season, scoring 301 runs at an average of 25.08 and strike rate of 146.082. He scored just one half-century in IPL 2025. Earlier, in the 2024 edition, he scored 327 runs from 13 innings at an average of 32.70 and strike rate of 149.51, including two fifties.
DC still alive in playoffs race -
Yes, DC are still in playoffs contention. But, they will need a lot of games to go their way. For the fourth spot, they would be hoping that the clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on May 24 turns out to be a virtual quarterfinal.
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