IPL 2018: Skipper Gautam Gambhir hits out at 'social media trial' being held against Delhi Daredevils

Mumbai: Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir’s homecoming in the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has not been great thus far. The Delhi franchise, led by Gambhir, has lost three out of their four games so far and lie at the bottom of the points table with just two points against their name. With losses piling, immense criticism has come Gambhir’s way. He was expected to deliver instantly and change Delhi’s fortunes in the current edition of the tournament. However, failure in the first few matches has made him come under heavy public scrutiny. [caption id=“attachment_4424063” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir. Twitter: @DelhiDaredevils-[/caption] Gambhir, unlike other captains, has spoken up the criticism he has been copping. In his latest column for Times Of India, he has defended the decisions he made in the first four games and also hit out at the new ’trolls’ who think by losing the three matches, his team has done some sort of a crime. Gambhir was quoted as saying in his column, “To my mind we now have a new body part — a smart phone. You just need to glance around and you will know what I mean. Currently India has 490 million smart phone users. Or, for those like me who are more comfortable with crore, 490 million equals to 49 crores. A healthy chunk of this number is on social media/Whatsapp and the other blah …blah… Many of these are sitting with their judgement glasses on, eager to hurl verdicts. As I was writing the column I got this one on my new team: “Drop Mohammed Shami and play Avesh Khan. Drop Vijay Shankar and play Prithvi Shaw. Besides there are too many Ds in the name Delhi Daredevils which is not a good sign as D stands for defeat.” The 36-year-old added that social media trial has begun for Daredevils. He wrote, “With one win in four games, social media trial has begun for Delhi Daredevils. In the times when everything is judged on “trolls”, “hits”, “followers” or “likes”, it seems my team has committed some sort of crime. If we don’t react in a certain way it doesn’t mean we aren’t hurt.” Delhi next play Royal Challengers Bangalore in another away contest on 21 April and hope to turn the tide in the tournament.