Bengaluru, November 5: Gautam Gambhir on Monday (November 5) opted out of the Delhi Ranji Trophy team's captaincy asking the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) to select youngsters for the plum posts within the team.
The 37-year-old Gambhir said he will help the new captain from behind the curtains imparting his experience and knowledge. Subsequently, the DDCA named Nitin Rana as the new captain with Dhruv Shorey as his deputy. Gambhir tweeted his decision on Monday afternoon.
| READ IN KANNADA" />GAMBHIR FUMES AT BCCI, CAB | READ IN KANNADA
Delhi will open their Ranji Trophy campaign against Himachal Pradesh on November 12 at Feroz Shah Kotla. "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," a senior office-bearer of the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) told PTI.
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 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 Shorey has 21 first-class matches to his credit and is a top-order batsman.
Gambhir was reinstated as captain at the start of the season and led Delhi to the Vijay Hazare finals and scored close to 500 runs in the national one-dayers. It is learnt that Gambhir, who is now 37, decided against continuing at the helm as it is still not clear whether he will play all the four-day games this season. However, with no Shikhar Dhawan or Rishabh Pant, Gambhir's experience will certainly be required.
Gambhir, however, had a slump in form during the IPL and his return to Delhi Daredevils' fold ended in a nightmare. The senior opener stepped down from captaincy and also didn't take part after the first six games of the cash-rich league.