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#3 Gambhir stepping down from captaincy
Gautam Gambhir’s much-anticipated “homecoming” to Delhi Daredevils (DD) ended with his decision to step down from captaincy.
After the team found itself at the bottom of the points table, with eight matches to go in the league, the left-hander announced his decision to step down as captain and handed over the reigns to Shreyas Iyer.
Gambhir said, “Absolutely my decision. I thought that I had not contributed enough and at the same time, to the performance of the team. I had to take the responsibility being the leader of the ship. I owe that responsibility as I should as a leader. I feel this is the right time (to step down as captain). We are very much in the competition. So this was the right time to put my hand up and where we stand in the points table.”
He also added, "Sometimes you realize that, maybe, I just could not handle the pressure, which came with the position and the responsibility that I was given."
Gambhir had scored 85 runs in five innings till then. The dashing former national opener who was instrumental in winning 2007 WT20I Cup and 2011 World Cup, did not play any of the remaining IPL matches post his resignation of the position. It was said that he would play a player-mentor role for the remaining matches of the season.
It was also revealed that Gautam Gambhir also decided to give up his entire Rs 2.8 crore salary while taking responsibility for the team's disastrous run. It was conceivably the first time that an IPL captain had decided to forego his salary because of non-performance. It was heartbreaking to see the champion cricketer's career fade away in such a fashion.
The heart-breaking decision for most of his fans and Delhi supporters turned out to be a helpful one too as DD turned things around to get back to winning ways but not well enough to qualify for playoffs. At the end of their campaign, DD promised to be a young energetic team led by young Shreyas Iyer that only got too late to get their composition right.
