3 times a player dropped himself from playing XI
Every player who gets selected looks to feature in the playing XI. Irrespective of whether he's playing at the club or international level, each player targets a place in the playing XI and tries their best to retain the position by performing consistently.
Sometimes, the team management makes changes to the playing XI based on the pitch and weather conditions. However, if the player is a top performer, he retains his place no matter what. Meanwhile, there are some players who are only selected when a team plays on a particular pitch.
There have also been such instances where a batter played a selfish innings to keep his place in the team or a bowler bowled negative lines and tried to retain his spot in the playing XI by maintaining a lower economy rate.
Not all players are the same, though. While a few players prioritise themselves over the team, some selflessly ask the management to drop them from the playing XI.
Recently, Pakistan's wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan disclosed that he asked the coach Saqlain Mushtaq to drop him for the New Zealand Test series after his poor form.
"You can ask the head coach Saqlain Mushtaq what I told him after the end of the England Test series. I was happy to see Sarfaraz perform because that is what I wanted. I personally thought that since I wasn’t able to perform, I didn’t deserve to play in the next series," Rizwan told Cricket Pakistan.
Like Rizwan, three other players have also selflessly dropped themselves from the playing XI in the past. Here's a look at three such names.
#1 Hanuma Vihari (India)
Hanuma Vihari is no longer a part of the Indian Test squad, but he was a regular in the team in 2019. He cemented his place in the playing XI with a century and a half-century in the away Test against West Indies in August 2019.
Later, the team management picked him in the squad for the home Test against South Africa, but Vihari felt that he should not be a part of the team. In his view, the team needed an extra bowler, which is why he told the coach to drop him.
“He (Hanuma Vihari) said, ‘Sir, next Test I shouldn’t play. We should play with an extra bowler because the way we are batting, we don’t need six batters’," former Indian fielding coach R Sridhar said in a chat with Cricbuzz.
#2 Gautam Gambhir (Delhi Daredevils)
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Gautam Gambhir played the last season of his IPL career for Delhi Daredevils in 2018. He was the team's captain in that tournament, but neither Gambhir nor his team could impress much in the first few games.
As a result, he dropped himself from the team, stepped down as captain and handed over the reins to youngster Shreyas Iyer. Gambhir never played in the IPL again.
#3 Ricky Ponting (Mumbai Indians)
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Ricky Ponting returned to IPL in 2013 and captained the Mumbai Indians. Like Gautam Gambhir, Ponting was in the final phase of his career and struggled to get going. After Delhi Daredevils beat Mumbai Indians by nine wickets in a league game, Ponting dropped himself from the playing XI.
He stepped from the captain's position as well and suggested Rohit Sharma's name as the next leader of MI. Under Rohit, MI would go on to win five titles, and he's also India's captain in all three formats now.