'Karun's form can't be reflection of his captaincy'

Delhi Daredevils chief coach Rahul Dravid defended the team management's decision to appoint Karun Nair as stand-in captain when the Karnataka batsman himself is going through a wretched form in this edition of Indian Premier League.

Daredevils lost their sixth game of the tournament and the batting was a disaster getting all-out for 67. Nair himself is having a nightmare of an IPL scoring 89 in 8 matches so far.

Asked how Nair was appointed in place of injured aheer Khan, the former India captain said that his form had nothing to do with his captaincy.

"We decided pretty early on in the tournament that if Zaheer Khan gets injured, Karun would be the person, who will take over the captaincy. Obviously, last year's vice-captain JP (Duminy) and Quinton de Kock wasn't here as well," Dravid reasoned.

He defended appointment of an out-of-form player.

"Look, it happens when you are out-of-form, whether you are a captain or you are a vice captain, that's not a reflection on his captaincy. He has led junior teams and led quite well. There is nothing much he can do if there are not good enough runs on the board. Obviously, he and we would like him to score a few more runs," he said.

He had no option but to admit that Daredevils have gone off-track.

"It is very disappointing, just to think there is not much to say when you get out for 67 and they chase it without loss. Nothing much to say except the fact that

we were pretty disappointing today (Sunday) in our execution and our batting just was not up to mark." He tried to put up a brave face that Daredevils will make a comeback but it seemed far from convincing.

"We can only go up from here. Look, we are better than what we showed today (Sunday)," he said.

Dravid said there have been times when they played some pretty good cricket."We lost some close games which were relatively close. But the last couple of times, I think, we did not play well," he said.