It was Gambhir’s decision to sit out, says Iyer

After stepping down as the skipper of Delhi Daredevils side, the team management decided to drop Gautam Gambhir from their playing XI against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Friday. But, the newly appointed captain Shreyas Iyer said that it was solely the former’s decision to sit out of the high-voltage encounter.

After stepping down as the skipper of Delhi Daredevils side, the team management decided to drop Gautam Gambhir from their playing XI against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Friday. But, the newly appointed captain Shreyas Iyer said that it was solely the former’s decision to sit out of the high-voltage encounter.

"I didn't make any call to be honest. It wasn't my decision to drop him. He himself decided to sit out, which was really courageous decision with him being the captain in the previous matches. The respect for him has gone really high. It's really good to see when a captain, if he's not playing well, he backs out Munro came in and gave us the desired start," said the 23-year-old.

Iyer hammered 93 off just 40 deliveries to anchor Delhi to a mammoth 219 in designated 20 overs.

The swashbuckling right-hander combined with Glenn Maxwell to collect 76 runs in last four of the innings, including 29 runs in the final over.

He smashed India U-19 World Cup winning cricketer Shivam Mavi for whopping 29 runs to take Delhi past 200-run mark.

As the India international ran a rampage on the decorated Kotla, one man more than overwhelmed to see the havoc caused was Gautam Gambhir. The former captain cheered for every shot that sailed over the ropes by his successor.

🤔🤔

That six by Iyer slapped over extra cover got the @DelhiDaredevils dugout like...#DDvKKR pic.twitter.com/ZsaJWlOjXW

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 27, 2018