On Monday, Delhi skipper, Gautam Gambhir has stepped down from his captaincy position as he feels that this is the right time that a young player should lead the team. However, Nitish Rana will be replacing Gambhir as Delhi’s Ranji captain.
The 24-year-old Rana is a middle-order batsman, who has an average of 46.29 in 24 first-class appearances so far. The 26-year-old Dhruv Shorey, appointed the vice-captain, has 21 first-class matches to his credit and is a top-order batsman.
As per the reports of PTI, talking about the same, a senior DDCA official said, “Gautam has intimated the state team’s chief selector Amit Bhandari that he would like to opt out of captaincy. He suggested that someone younger be groomed for the job. Nitish Rana will lead the side and Dhruv Shorey will be his deputy.”
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Tweeting about the same, Gautam posted, “Time to pass the captaincy baton to youngsters, hence have requested the DDCA selectors not to consider me for that role. I will be in the background helping the new leader to win games.”
Time to pass the captaincy baton to youngsters, hence have requested the DDCA selectors not to consider me for that role. I will be in the background helping the new leader to win games @RajatSharmaLive
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) November 5, 2018
The Delhi squad, for the first match scheduled on November 12, at the Feroz Shah Kotla will be named later on Monday. Gautam renamed as the skipper at the start of the season and led Delhi to the Vijay Hazare finals, scoring close to 500 runs in the tournament.
Some of the reports have also suggested that Gambhir decided to step down because of the fact that it is still not clear whether he will play all the four-day games this season. His’s decision to opt out of captaincy is also an indicator that he might not continue playing competitive cricket for a very long time. However, with no Shikhar Dhawan or Rishabh Pant, Gambhir’s experience will certainly be required.
