IPL 2018: Delhi Daredevils Announce Their Captain

Delhi Daredevils have appointed Gautam Gambhir as their captain for the upcoming season.

Ricky Ponting, DD’s Head Coach, had given indications of Gambhir being given the job on the auction day and him being appointed as the captain comes as no surprise.

There were few candidates for the job in form of Rishabh Pant, Amit Mishra, Shreyas Iyer and Chris Morris but Gambhir was the favourite to perform the job.

Gambhir is making a comeback to Delhi Daredevils camp after a period of seven years

He was associated with the franchise from 2008 to 2010. He also led the side in 2009 IPL.

Before IPL auction 2011, Delhi Daredevils released Gautam Gambhir.

He was purchased by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2011 auction for a huge amount of Rs 11.04 Crore and led the side from 2011 to 2017.

KKR successfully won two IPL titles under him, in 2012 and 2014.

Last year as well, Gambhir led the side to the second qualifier stage of the tournament.

However, the captain himself asked the owners not to retain him, as revealed by Venky Mysore, KKR’s CEO.

Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab were the only franchises who bid for Gambhir in the auction and after a small bargaining, Delhi got back the home player for Rs 2.80 Crore.

Delhi is one of the three franchises – which has played all the editions of IPL – which hasn’t won an IPL title and the side would be hoping captain Gambhir to turn the fortunes of the team.

In fact, Delhi Daredevils haven’t even played a single final in the history of the tournament.

Delhi Daredevils will face Kings XI Punjab in their opening contest on April 8.

Squad: Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Chris Morris, Glenn Maxwell, Kagiso Rabada, Amit Mishra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Mohammad Shami, Gautam Gambhir, Trent Boult, Colin Munro, Daniel Christian, Jason Roy, Naman Ojha, Prithvi Shaw, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Avesh Khan, Abhishek Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Harshal Patel, Manjot Kalra, Sandeep Lamichhane, Sayan Ghosh.

Here is the newsfeed:

Steve Waugh praises Virat Kohli for his character