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New Delhi: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils (DD), on Wednesday, named Gautam Gambhir as their skipper for season 11 of the cash-rich league. Gambhir formerly led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) but was released ahead of the upcoming season and was bought by DD for INR 2.8 crore (USD 437,500 approx.) at the auction in January.
Who else? 😃@GautamGambhir has officially been announced as #DilliKaKaptaan!#DilDilli
— Delhi Daredevils (@DelhiDaredevils) March 7, 2018
Gambhir returned to the Delhi franchise after a seven-season stint with Kolkata Knight Riders and under his captaincy, KKR won two IPL titles.
Earlier, DD’s newly-appointed coach, Ricky Ponting said that the southpaw’s leadership qualities and ability to nurture the youngsters make him an ideal candidate to lead the side.
“If you look at his (Gambhir) leadership, we did not find any fault when captaining KKR. His last season of IPL also has also been very good. So we thought it would be good to have him as captain working with some of the young Indian players. So, we have gone for an experienced captain and I am sure he will do the job for us,” Ponting said.
Even Gambhir, who was KKR’s leading run-getter with 3345 runs in 122 matches, said he was more excited than he has ever been on his return to Daredevils. In 2017, Gambhir, even before any decisions on player retention were made, revealed that he wanted to finish with a stint at Delhi Daredevils.
DD will kick-start their IPL 2018 campaign against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and the game is scheduled to be played on April 8 at Feroz Shah Kotla.
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