The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils (DD) ended their campaign in the ongoing season at the bottom-most position at the points table. However, in the last few games, they managed to defeat teams like Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI). Their former captain Gautam Gambhir chose to step down from the captaincy after the first six games and also warmed the bench due to poor performances. However, he has now come up with a statement that he was ready to play every game and always kept himself ready for the playing XI.

Ever since Gambhir resigned from the captaincy duties, he didn’t play a single game for DD in IPL 2018 with even the new captain Shreyas Iyer clarifying that the southpaw dropped himself from the team. The same was restated by the coach Ricky Ponting recently in the press conference after the match against Mumbai.

“After resigning from the captaincy, it was Gambhir’s decision to sit out of the playing XI,” Ponting said. Gambhir had only scored 85 runs in 5 outings with an unacceptable strike-rate of 96.59 and his struggles with the bat were visible.

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However, Gautam has denied the fact that he dropped himself from the team as during an interview with ABP news he said, “I never dropped myself from the playing XI. If that was the case, then I would’ve announced the retirement as well. A lot of cricket is still left in me.”

Gambhir also clarified the reason for him stepping down from the leadership role midway through the season. He added, “The team was losing matches continuously under my leadership and I resigned taking the whole responsibility for the same. But I never rejected from playing in the side and the team management and Ricky Ponting is also aware of this fact.”

Moreover, the 36-year-old also went on to say that he has no intentions to retire with immediate effect and will continue playing at least for one more year.