The greatest surprise that came out in the IPL this week was the resignation of Gautam Gambhir. In a press conference conducted alongside the CEO of Delhi Daredevils and the Coach Ricky Ponting, Gautam Gambhir expressed his disappointment for not achieving the desired results. DD has lost five out of their six matches so far in the season. In the wake of the appalling results, Gambhir decided to hand over the captaincy to Shreyas Iyer.

Since the announcement, there have been lot many speculations about the aspects of his decision. The theory of team management forcing Gautam to take the decision was at the top. But Gambhir sensed that happening and rubbished the notion by saying that it was his individual decision and the franchise did not fiddle with it.

The removal from the DD team means there is little cricket that Gautam Gambhir will get to play. Does he want to retire from the game? Gambhir replies.“There has been speculation about my future as a cricketer too. Well, there are no immediate plans to retire. My immediate plans include turning it around for DD, buying a nice gift for my daughter’s birthday on May 1 and moving out of my hotel suite as only the captains get to stay in them,” he wrote in his column for TOI.

True, that I’ve stepped down from DD captaincy. Just to clarify it was my call, nothing from the management or coaching staff. I may not be leading from the front but I will be the last man standing for @DelhiDaredevils. No individual bigger than d team. Very much a #DilDIlli

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 25, 2018

There was also a trend that suggested Ricky Ponting played a major role in this development. Ponting himself has done similar while playing for Mumbai Indians. Also, Ponting comes from the Aussie tradition of captain resigning if the team is doing so poorly.

“While I was writing this I was getting a sense that a certain section of the media was seeing Ponting as a trigger for my decision to step down. I don’t know where is it coming from. Maybe Aussie-bashing is the flavor of the season! Ponting is a fine guy. Maybe we are watching too many news channels/daily soaps and end up searching for conspiracies where none exist. It is a straight line, let us not speculate: It was MY decision to step down, no one pushed me into it,” Gambhir clarified.

Gautam Gambhir has let go his wages of the season as well. The man may lose his place in the team but he has upheld his dignity.