With another dismal season at IPL, the bad streak for the IPL team, Delhi Daredevils continue.
Change of captains, players and everything else has been tried and tested by the Delhi franchise but a string of bad, disheartening performances only have followed for the team.
During the IPL Auction, the Delhi fans were hopeful and enthusiastic after Gautam Gambhir was roped in to captain the team but what followed for the fans was yet another disappointing year.
Gambhir, who led SRK’s Kolkata Knight Riders to two IPL titles, returned to his home team as the captain.
You’d expect the IPL’s fourth-highest run-getter with 4217 from 152 innings to turn around DD’s fortunes finally, but you are wrong. The 36-year-old has so far managed only 85 runs in five innings, of which 55 came in Daredevils’ first game.
Only one win from six matches, with 2 of the matches being on their fortress, Feroze Shah Kotla has left the team languishing at the bottom of the points table, and the fans believing that DD will never let go of their ‘chokers’ tag.
Seeing his rather forgettable performance as the captain for the side, and to salvage whatever remaining games the team has got, Gautam Gambhir announced his decision to step down from the captaincy from 25th April.
Batsman Shreyas Iyer will take the charge from Friday’s match against the KKR at the Kotla.
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What Gambhir Had To Say
“It was my decision. I haven’t contributed enough to the team. I had to take the responsibility being the leader of the ship. I feel it was the right time.” -Gambhir said.
He also announced that he wouldn’t accept his salary of Rs. 2.8 crore since he doesn’t feel he deserves it owing to his bad performance.
Gambhir knew about the aftermath that’d follow after the announcement owing to his massive, loyal, passionate fan following.
He made it clear that it was his decision to step down and no one pushed him into it when he sensed that a certain section of the media was seeing the coach, Australian legend, Ricky Ponting as a trigger for his decision.
Ponting too hailed Gambhir for his sincerity and dedication towards the game. “Taking a call like this isn’t heard of in India. For someone of his stature and cricketing record, to take a decision like this is incredible,” he said.
What The Fans Had To Say
His decision was a shocker for all the cricketing fans. We saw some indignant fans who were angry at the announcement. Fans were blaming Ponting and the management for forcing this decision on Gambhir.
Many of them threw heavy-handed criticism at the DD’s management saying that a few bad matches didn’t give them the right to hand over the charge to someone as inexperienced as Iyer when compared to Gambhir.
However, we also saw some people seeing the logic in this decision. They felt that it was time for Gambhir to give way to more dynamic, young players like Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant.
Well, at the end of the day, fans of DD, (yours truly included) can only pray and hope that this barter pays off well and we finally see Delhi Daredevils honouring its lifelong supporters’ commitment and loyalty to the team by making it to the playoffs of IPL.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Firstpost, TOI, NDTV Sports
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