In a desperate bid to win their third Indian Premier League (IPL) title, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have roped in their former captain Gautam Gambhir as their mentor for IPL 2024. KKR has won both of their IPL trophies till date under the captaincy of the former India opener.
The two-time IPL champions have failed to win the IPL since Gautam Gambhir led them to their second title in 2014. The World Cup winner parted ways with KKR as a player after IPL 2017 and the team based in Calcutta has struggled to do so. well since then.
Since Gautam Gambhir’s departure, KKR have qualified for the playoffs only twice in six seasons. In the last edition of the IPL, they finished seventh in the points table before deciding to appoint their most decorated captain as a mentor.
13 years after signing him as a player and then naming him captain, KKR are hopeful that Gautam Gambhir’s return to the KKR team will transform their fortunes. In the last two seasons, he plied his trade as a mentor for the Lucknow Super Giants and helped them qualify for the playoffs in both seasons.
Shah Rukh Khan’s message to Gautam Gambhir:
Before the start of IPL 2024, Gautam Gambhir revealed the message he received from KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan. Expressing his gratitude towards the Bollywood superstar and the franchise’s CEO Venky Mysore, Gautam Gambhir said:
“First of all, I want to say one thing: I am a very difficult guy to deal with. I have to thank SRK (team principal owner Shah Rukh Khan) and Venky bhai (CEO Venky Mysore), who are also here… They have put up with a lot of my tantrums and stubbornness over such a long period of time.”
“Because the truth is that we know how to fight honestly, we know how to lose and we know how to win,” he added while speaking at the Knights Unplugged event.
Speaking further, he revealed Shah Rukh Khan’s message, saying, “He just told me the same thing he had told me when I joined KKR as a player in 2011: ‘This is your franchise, make it or break it.’ He told me exactly the same thing. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I can assure you that when I leave this place, we will be in a much better position.”
IPL 2024 is scheduled to begin on March 22, while KKR will begin their campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 23.