A distraught Ricky Ponting had no option but to admit that Delhi Capitals are a "long way off" from being in the competition and he is finding it difficult to put his fingers on what's going wrong.
DC have now lost three games in a row -- by 50 runs to Lucknow Super Giants, by six wickets to Gujarat Titans and by 57 runs to Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on Saturday.
"We are a long way off right now and I can't put my finger on why. If I watch these boys train and prepare, their work has been really good but it hasn't just come across as any results yet on the field. So if I could put my finger on it, I would change it," a visibly upset Ponting said.
He was straightforward in his admission that the playing combinations used haven't worked so far.
"We have to think about players we are putting on the ground, as what we have put in hasn't worked. As a coaching group we will talk with our captain and take a call," Ponting said.
On Saturday, it wasn't the raw pace that troubled Prithvi Shaw but the movement off the surface generated by Trent Boult.
"I don't think it's the pace. I don't think Trent Boult's pace worried him. I think the moving ball worried him today. If you guys watched him bat yesterday at nets, he looked a million dollars, his preparation was good," Ponting said.
But as one had seen with Mitchell Starc, when he played Tests in Australia, or Boult during the 2020 New Zealand series, Shaw's problems against left-am swing bowlers is well-documented.
"Maybe it's something to think that he has got poor record against left handers, which every opposition knows and something that we need to work with him.
"We won't point fingers at one person and that's not what we do at DC, we are in this all together and we have to find a better way to play as 11 or 12," he said.
Ponting wants to give the team a day's break and then have some frank conversations about what exactly is going wrong.
"We need to do some soul searching as a group and maybe not tonight as I will let the boys think about it tonight and may be come back tomorrow or day after," Ponting said.
"But we need to turn around our cricket quickly and three games and no wins, you can't afford to get bad starts in IPL."
He feels the game was pretty much won and lost in those first two overs when Rajasthan Royals racked up runs.
"If you see from that aspect, we gave away 32 in first two overs with eight fours, and our bowling was way below execution level of what it should be. So, if you put two overs of our batting innings and first over of our bowling, it's pretty hard to win games of cricket."
Khaleel has injured hamstring, Marsh back home to get married
Khaleel Ahmed, who was smashed for five fours by Yashasvi Jaiswal in the opening over of the match, didn't finish his quota as Rovman Powell bowled the remaining couple.
While many thought that Khaleel was taken off for the hammering, Ponting informed that Khaleel has "injured his hamstring" and they were forced to bowl Rovman.
"We had to change our playing XI in each game, at least three changes and some were forced. Mitchell Marsh has gone back to Australia to get married."
