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Even before the 2018 IPL auction, discarded Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir was quite vocal about his prospects of going back to Delhi Daredevils. He eventually joined Delhi and was named the captain of the franchise.
He kickstarted the season with a fifty against Kings XI Punjab. Since then, he has hardly contributed to the team's cause and has registered scores of 15, 8, 3 and 4. Even his form coming into the tournament wasn't good.
On top of his batting, his captaincy is not helping the team as Daredevils are at the bottom of the IPL points table. Putting his team ahead of him, he has stepped down from captaincy and in all likelihood, he might not feature in the playing XI as well.
This is not the first time when a captain decides to sit out of the playing XI for the betterment of the team. Let us take a look at thre instances when a captain dropped himself from the playing XI in IPL.
#3 Kumar Sangakkara
After the first few matches of the 2012 season, Deccan Chargers captain Kumar Sangakkara, who was having a below-par run, both as a captain and a batsman, decided to drop himself as the captain of the team.
The main motive behind this move was to make way for better overseas players who were warming the bench for the now-defunct franchise.
Sangakkara handed over the reigns to in-form Australian batsman Cameron White but the move did not work as much as the team management would have expected as they finished eighth in the nine-team tournament.
#2 Daniel Vettori
When left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori was released by Delhi Daredevils, he was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead of the 2011 IPL and the Kiwi was handed over the captaincy as well.
In his second season with the franchise, Muttiah Muralitharan joined them and it had to be either the Kiwi or the Lankan wizard to make it to the playing XI as they already had the likes of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan as their three overseas cricketers.
Since Vettori was the captain of the side, Muralitharan was made to sit on the bench but at the same time, the New Zealand veteran was not enjoying much success as a bowler. Vettori eventually took the tough call by benching himself and handed over the captaincy reins to a young Virat Kohli.
RCB went on to win three consecutive matches after this decision, an indication that the move was well thought out.
#1 Ricky Ponting
When Ricky Ponting was bought by Mumbai Indians in the 2013 IPL auction, a lot was expected from him as he was also given the responsibility of captaincy in spite of having the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh, who have led the franchise in the past.
The Aussie legend managed to score just 52 runs in six innings at an average of 10.4 and wasn't doing any good for the teams both as a captain and as a batsman. That's when Ponting, who is easily one of the best captains the sport has ever seen, dropped himself from the team and handed over the captaincy reigns to Rohit Sharma.
That turned Mumbai's campaign around as Rohit Sharma led them to their first-ever IPL win.
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