Gautam Gambhir clears the air about his future plans

In what has been an emotional week for Delhi Daredevils and Gautam Gambhir, speculations suggesting that the Delhi southpaw might retire in the coming days have been increasing. He stepped down as the skipper on Wednesday after the team lost to Kings XI Punjab resulting in a dismal start to the season in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

Under his captaincy, the Daredevils have not quite managed to deliver as a team and as a result, they are languishing at the bottom of the points table, having managed a solitary win in six games. Apart from that Gambhir’s lack of runs, resulted in him taking the decision to step down.

With neither the team nor his own form showing any signs of improvement, Gambhir decided to hand over the baton to youngster Shreyas Iyer. He insisted that the decision had nothing to do with the management or the owners and that it was his own call. His sudden decision made many speculate that he might call it a day from the game as well. However, the veteran batsman, who last represented India in 2016, has made it clear that he has no immediate plans of retiring from the game.

No immediate plans to retire

“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.

As is the prevailing norm, the reports of rifts between the captain and the coach were subsequently quashed too as Gambhir clarified that Ricky Ponting had no role in the decision. Ponting, in fact, is one of the few captains who had stepped down after a string of low scores during his time at Mumbai Indians.

“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.

Meanwhile, Gauti has decided to play this season without taking even a single penny from the franchise.

For all the latest cricket news and other details follow CricTracker.