Indian Premier League 2018 Player Auction: Gautam Gambhir to lead Delhi Daredevils?

Mumbai: Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir is the most likely candidate to lead Delhi Daredevils in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), according to head coach Ricky Ponting.

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Gambhir was on Saturday bought by the Delhi franchise for Rs 2.8 crore in the ongoing IPL auctions on Saturday.

"We've had a fair bit of thought into that. It's likely right now that Gautam Gambhir will lead Delhi next season. We had a few conversations with him leading into the Auction today and he had sort of conveyed to us that he would like the opportunity to come back to his home, back to Delhi and hopefully lead the team,” Ponting told reporters on the sidelines of the IPL auction.

"If you look at his leadership credentials, it is pretty hard to fault anything that he has done during his time at KKR. We felt just that little bit of experience around some of the young Indian players that we kept in Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant would help them a lot. So we have gone for an experienced captain and I'm sure he will do a good job for us,” he added.

Gambhir had led Kolkata Knight Riders to IPL title victories in 2012 and 2014.

Glenn Maxwell, Amit Mishra and Kagiso Rabada were some of the notable players who were bought by the franchise.

The IPL auction continues on Sunday, where the unsold players will have one more chance at the event.