Aakash Chopra has shown faith in Gautam Gambhir and believes that he will make the most of Kolkata Knight Riders’ considerable purse to form a formidable team for IPL 2024. Kolkata Knight Riders have Rs 32.70 crore left in their purse after releasing a large number of players. before the IPL auction. The Kolkata-based franchise can acquire a maximum of 12 players, including four foreign players, in the auction scheduled in Dubai on December 19.
Aakash Chopra shared his opinion in a video that Gambhir would like to use all available resources at his disposal to turn things around for the Kolkata Knight Riders. He explained, “Gautam was in Lucknow and came to Calcutta, but he was also in Calcutta before. In fact, he was the captain when Kolkata won the IPL trophy twice. Last time they finished in 7th place and failed to qualify. Shreyas Iyer was not available. The captain is available this time and the mentor has also changed.”
The former India opener added: “The winds of change have blown. They have a lot of money and Gautam Gambhir is never stingy. He says he will spend every last rupee. In fact, I remember that he did not take a single paise home in the first Lucknow auction. So you can expect the same here too.”
Gautam Gambhir has led KKR to two IPL titles
Gautam Gambhir led the Kolkata Knight Riders to their two titles in 2012 and 2014. He then left the franchise playing his final season with them in 2017 and moved to Delhi Capitals before joining the Lucknow Super Giants as a mentor in 2022. Gambhir spent the entire available purse of Rs 90 crore in forming a 21-member team in the IPL 2022 auction.
Now that he is back in Kolkata, the team management and fans will expect a change as his record with the team has been phenomenal when he was leading the team. Gautam Gambhir took over the captaincy of KKR from the legendary Sourav Ganguly in 2011 when the latter retired from all forms of cricket and has since completely changed the team from the bottom half of the table to the champions.
Kolkata Knight Riders did not have an auspicious IPL campaign in 2022 and 2023 as they failed to qualify for the playoffs. Their best recent campaign was in 2021, when they reached the final under the leadership of Eoin Morgan. However, they were defeated by Chennai Super Kings in the final. Gautam Gambhir could turn things around for the franchise and hopefully KKR will qualify for the playoffs this time.