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Gautam Gambhir with Shah Rukh Khan© AFP
Former India batter Gautam Gambhir will be returning to his old IPL franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders as a mentor for the upcoming season. The 2011 World Cup champion had earlier led KKR to two IPL title in 2012 and 2014. In his seven-year stint with the team, he has taken KKR to new heights and finished as one of the greatest batters of the tournament. Gambhir, who earlier mentored Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2022 and 2023, recently opened up about his bond with KKR co-owner and Bollywood superstar, Shah Rukh Khan.
Gambhir revealed that how Shah Rukh motivated him during his initial struggles in IPL 2014 after he had decided to drop himself.
“In 2014, during the IPL in Abu Dhabi, I began with three consecutive ducks. In the fourth game, I managed to score one run. With four losses in our first five matches, as we returned to Ritz Carlton after another defeat, Shah Rukh Khan stood in the lobby. He pulled me aside and inquired about the situation. I mentioned I was contemplating dropping myself,” Gambhir said on ANI’s Smita Prakash podcast.
“He said, ‘As long as you’re committed and want to be part of the team, don’t consider dropping yourself.’ He urged me to promise that I’d play every game as long as I was there. I managed to score two or three half-centuries consecutively, and we emerged victorious in 2014. Surprisingly, that turned out to be my only cricket-related conversation with him in my seven years of
captaincy,” Gambhir added.
Gambhir got dismissed for duck in the first two games of IPL 2014 and scored only one run in the third match. However, that season turned out to be great one for him as he finished with 335 runs in 16 matches.
His team KKR had lost first five games out of seven but then went to register nine consecutive wins, including the summit clash against Punjab Kings.
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