NEW DELHI, APR 25,
Gautam Gambhir’s much-projected “home coming” as skipper of the Delhi Daredevils has ended.
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.
Confirming the murmurs that were making the rounds on Wednesday afternoon, 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 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. No pressure from the franchisee. They’ve been very supportive of the decision. When your conscience says it’s the right time, you just take that.” Probed to be more specific, Gambhir said, “May be I was too desperate to turn things around and at times, it can backfire as well. Because, sometimes, you are too eager and too desperate to turn things around that it makes things hard on your own self. That could be the reason. Sometimes you realise that, may be, I just could not handle the pressure, which came with the position and the responsibility that I was given. “Sometimes, when you are not able to handle that pressure, your performance plus your team’s performance, you got to owe that up as a leader. May be I was too desperate than I should have been, to be honest. When I was sitting alone and thinking after the last game, may
be that was the reason I could not fire. I could not handle the pressure. I have always been honest about what I say and one reason is absolutely this one. Gambhir, who has so far scored 85 runs in five innings, said, “May be coming back to Delhi (after playing for Kolkata Knight Riders for seven season) was an emotional decision, as well. Sometimes when your emotions get the better of you, and then you are so desperate to turn things around.
That’s the only thing I can think of, at this moment. It’s early in the tournament to reflect on what actually went wrong (with DD’s performance so far).
