Gautam Gambhir on Monday stepped down as the captain of Delhi Ranji team as the squad’s most iconic player decided to make way for someone younger at the top order, a state association official said. Gambhir has been replaced by Nitish Rana as the captain of Delhi Ranji team and Dhruv Shorey will take the role of vice-captain. "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 is 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. The 24-year-old Nitish Rana, a flamboyant middle-order batsman, who has already shown his mettle in the domestic circuit and has an impressive average of 46.29 in 24 first-class matches so far. While the 26-year-old Shorey is a top-order batsman with 21 first-class matches to his name. The Delhi squad, for the first match scheduled on November 12, at the Feroz Shah Kotla will be named later on Monday. Gambhir was made the captain at the start of the season and was the backbone of the Delhi team as they strolled through to the Vijay Hazare finals, with the elegant opener scoring a close to 500 runs in the National One-Dayers. Recently, Gambhir has been active on social media on various issues from corruption, politics, and cricket.
