Kotla feels like an away ground: Hemang Badani's brutal verdict on Delhi Capitals' home woes

Delhi Capitals finally snapped their miserable run at home with a crucial five-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in their final league match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, keeping their IPL 2026 playoff hopes alive.

Yet, even victory could not hide the frustration simmering within the camp over what head coach Hemang Badani believes has become a deeply unsettling disconnect between the team and its own home conditions.

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As has often been the case this season, Badani did not shy away from addressing Delhi’s troubled relationship with the Kotla surface. DC managed only two wins in seven matches at home this season, losing five consecutive games in between despite building a squad that was expected to thrive in familiar conditions.

“We’ve stopped discussing the surface. We play this as an away venue,” Badani said after the win.

That one line perhaps best captured Delhi Capitals’ bizarre home campaign in IPL 2026. For the second time this season, and far more directly this time, Badani suggested that DC had effectively been stripped of any meaningful home advantage.

The numbers only reinforce his argument. Delhi’s home season began and ended with victories, but the five defeats sandwiched in between gave them a staggering 71.4 percent loss record at home, the worst among all 10 IPL teams this season.

“If you break the season into two halves, what’s happened at home and what’s happened away, we’ve had four wins in six games away and we have primarily struggled at home,” Badani said.

The trend extends beyond this season. Since the start of IPL 2025, Delhi Capitals have won only three of their 12 matches in Delhi.

“That pretty much tells you how this surface has been for us,” Badani said. “It hasn’t been conducive to our style of play. We’ve, at many times, not been able to figure out what the surface is like.”

While franchises have historically preferred surfaces suited to the strengths of the squads they assemble at auction, curators are under no obligation to meet those expectations under BCCI regulations. However, Badani’s frustration appeared less about bias and more about unpredictability.

Delhi constructed their squad around spin playing a major role at home, with Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam expected to control games in Delhi. Instead, the conditions offered little assistance. Across seven home games this season, DC’s spin trio managed only nine wickets while conceding runs at an economy of 10.07 and an average of 57.11.

The inconsistency in pitch behaviour has only added to the confusion.

On one surface, Delhi nearly chased down 210. On another, they were bowled out for 75 runs. On a parallel strip where DC smashed 264 earlier this season, the opposition chased the target with ease, while another game on a similar wicket saw Delhi collapse for 142.

“One match we’re out on 60 [75], another on 150, another on 260,” Badani said. “So no one is consistently understanding how pitch No. 4 will play, or how pitch No. 5 will play, or 6 for that matter.”

According to Badani, the inability to predict conditions has made tactical preparation extremely difficult. Team combinations, bowling balance and even Impact Player plans have repeatedly been thrown off because the side has struggled to anticipate how the pitch would behave.

“Each time we’ve turned up here, we’ve got something very different. But it is what it is. We accept it and we move on,” he said.

Badani clarified that he was not asking for franchises to have complete control over pitches, but insisted consistency was essential if teams were expected to build squads strategically.

“If it has to be a consistent decision for all, I don’t mind it,” he said. “But then it should at least be where you know what you’re expecting. If you look at the statistics of all three pitches, you’ll think there’s barely a difference, but when you know whether it’s a 180 pitch, or 200 or 260-run pitch, then you structure the side accordingly.”

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