Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir stepped down on Wednesday after the capital franchise lost five of their six matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) season so far.
Top-order batsman Shreyas Iyer, 23, will take over the captaincy role of the team, which is at the bottom of the table. Their only win came against Mumbai Indians — who are also struggling with the same number of points.
“It was my decision. I haven’t contributed enough to the team. I had to take the responsibility being the leader of the ship for where we are at the points table. I feel it was the right time for me to step down. There was no pressure from the franchise,” Gambhir said at a press conference.
“I was too desperate to turn things around. When you are so eager, it can backfire. That could be the reason, and may be I couldn’t handle the pressure which came with the position I was given. Coming back to Delhi (from Kolkata Kngight Riders) was an emotional decision, my emotional homecoming and sometimes emotions get the better of you and then you are so eager to change th things around — this was the only thing in my mind.”
Gambhir, 36, captained KKR to two IPL tiles in 2012 and 2014. He had joined KKR after three seasons with Delhi.
Gambhir’s batting performance has hardly been anything to talk about. He posted scores of 55, 15, 8, 3 and 4.
Shreyas said: “I am ready for the new challenge. I want to thank the management and my coaches for slecting me as the captain of the team. It is a great honour for me. It is a great opportunity to prove myself. There are lot of people in our camp who believe we still can do some great things.”
Head coach Ricky Ponting said: “It is a tough call (from the captain) to say that the team’s performance has not been good enough and someone else is better in the side to take up the role. It shows great character as leader to stand up and say that.
“I fully endorse Shreyas as the new leader, terrific young player and terrific young man — someone who has a huge future in the game,” he added.
“Gambhir’s decision, as tough as it might be, it gives us a fresh start for the last half of this tournament. We have the talent in the group to make impact in this tournament. We have six home games to go and hopefully good results follow. We need to be more consistent over the the entire 40 overs of a match.”
Gambhir said the team still can turn the things around and reach the playoffs. “I still feel we have the team to turn things around,” Gambhir said. “I may not be leading from the front but I will be the last man standing for @DelhiDaredevils. No individual is bigger than the team.”
“We still need to seven games out of the eight — which is absolutely possible in this format. Teams have done that in the past and we believe we have the capability and the confidence to do that this year as well.”