Not even 48 hours had passed since Delhi Capitals’ Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign came to an anti-climactic end, and Abishek Porel was back training in his hometown, Chandannagar.
The DC batter was in a hurry to start working on his shortcomings that dragged him down in the latter half of the season, a drop in form which mirrored his side’s topsy-turvy IPL 2025.
“I am paying more attention to how I have been getting out. So, by analysing all that, I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes in the future. So, I am working on that now,” Porel said on Monday.
Delhi Capitals began the season in rousing fashion, winning five games in a row to start. It looked locked in for a Playoffs spot before the wind deserted its sail in the latter half of the season. The side won only one of its last six games, winding up fifth in the standings.
Much like his team, Porel started the season on a high before form evaded him towards the end.
Porel, retained by DC before the IPL 2025 auction, started with a string of solid knocks. In his first 10 games, he accumulated 253 runs, with six 25-plus scores. But in the last four matches, he could add just 48 runs, while falling for single-digit scores thrice.
“We were disappointed, because we played good cricket actually. After the first few matches, we can’t maintain the momentum. It is a long tournament, and we experienced a lot of ups and downs,” added Porel.
Despite the underwhelming finish, Porel ended the season as DC’s second-highest run getter for the season, with only KL Rahul scoring more than him.
The Bengal batter accumulated 301 runs at a strike rate of 146.82, making it his second consecutive IPL season with a 300-plus run tally.
But, Porel’s State team coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla sees this as a glass-half-empty situation, considering he and his ward had set a 600-plus run season as the target for IPL 2025.
Shukla opined that Porel could have been a bit more selective with his shot-making. “Nothing is wrong with him. If you don’t play well, it doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you. It’s just that he should have been more choosy. He was telling me that it’s important to hit the ball more. He has improved a lot. He will learn from every mistake. Only then will he become a good player,” added Shukla.
For Porel, IPL 2025 was also a learning opportunity, thanks to the presence of DC mentor Kevin Pietersen and teammate Rahul.
“It was a great experience to share a dressing room with KP [Pietersen] and KL [Rahul]. I managed to learn a lot from them. I gained ideas on how to score big runs and batting planning. I had chats with KP about how to prepare myself mentally and be tough and strong,” said Porel.
Midway through the ongoing IPL season, the India A team for the England tour was announced. Shukla’s hopes of Porel finding a place in the touring squad failed to materialise.
“We always have expectations. I had the same for Shreyas Iyer [for the Test team] and Porel. It was a surprise that neither of them got selected. I think they should have been selected. This keeps happening with everyone. The issue of selection keeps happening. But I hope they will come back strongly,” said Shukla.
Porel, though, wants to keep his sights solely on his process, which is now aligned for the upcoming Bengal Premier League.