IPL 2018 : One player from each team that has surprisingly under performed

#7 Gautam Gambhir (Delhi Daredevils)

Can leaving the captaincy bring back his form?

Just like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils have been rather unlucky during thje first 10 years of IPL. The only team to have never made it to the finals of IPL, DD have often ended their season drooling at the bottom end of the points table despite having one of the better squads every time. The lack of an experienced leader was certainly a big issue, but it was solved with Gautam Gambhir's return to the team after 7 years.

Yet, the team currently sits at number 7 in the points table half-way into this season. Not that their players have not performed to the level that they should have - Trent Boult has taken 11 wickets so far and owns the Purple Cap whereas Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant are among the top 10 run-scorers in the tournament. The problem is that the team has not performed well as a unit, and the biggest surprise was the string of poor performances by their skipper.

Gambhir was expected to lead the team from the front and use his experience to score the runs for the team. However, to the surprise of everyone, Gambhir only managed to score 85 runs in the first 6 matches. Right when everyone thought Gambhir might bounce back, he relinquished the captaincy of the team and was subsequently dropped from the team for the next match. Since DD won that match in his absence, it seems like this indeed is the end of road for Gautam Gambhir.