The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils (DD) captain Gautam Gambhir‘s homecoming in the 11th edition of the tournament has not been great thus far. The Delhi franchise under the leadership of Gautam has lost three out of their four games so far and lie at the bottom of the points table with just two points under their belt.
Apart from the heavy losses, immense criticism has come Gambhir’s way as well. He was expected to deliver from the very first game and change Delhi’s fortunes in the current edition of the tournament. However, failure in the first few matches has made him come under heavy public scrutiny.
Unlike the other skippers, Gautam has expressed about the criticism he has been copping. In his latest column for Times Of India, he wrote, “To my mind, we now have a new body part — a smartphone. You just need to glance around, and you will know what I mean. Currently, India has 490 million smartphone users. Or, for those like me who are more comfortable with crore, 490 million equals to 49 crores. A healthy chunk of this number is on social media/Whatsapp and the other blah …blah… Many of these are sitting with their judgment glasses on, eager to hurl verdicts.”
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He further added, “As I was writing the column, I got this one on my new team: ‘Drop Mohammed Shami and play Avesh Khan. Drop Vijay Shankar and play Prithvi Shaw. Besides there are too many Ds in the name Delhi Daredevils which is not a good sign as D stands for defeat.”
The 36-year-old added that social media trolls have begun for the DD team. He wrote, “With one win in four games, social media trial has begun for Delhi Daredevils. In the times when everything is judged on “trolls”, “hits”, “followers” or “likes”, it seems my team has committed some sort of crime. If we don’t react in a certain way, it doesn’t mean we aren’t hurt.”
Delhi will lock horns with the Virat Kohli led team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in another away contest on 21 April and hope to turn the tide in the tournament.
