It may not be too off the mark, if somebody says that Gautam Gambhir has got the Midas Touch. Be it Kolkata Knight Riders or the Lucknow Super Giants, any team where Gambhir sits in the dug-out, the outlook of the team changes. It happened with Lucknow Super Giants, for the past two seasons when the former India opener was a mentor. And it is happening yet again in KKR, where Gambhir is the captain now. The side is sitting pretty at the top of the table in the IPL 2024.
Gambhir is also know to be a fierce competitor. None can forget his on-field arguments with fellow players like Virat Kohli. Gambhir recently reflected on his career.
“Sometimes you need to have an aggressive approach as a leader if you want your team to be aggressive. Sometimes you need to do things you didn’t want to. When I look back at my career, I have done some things I shouldn’t have done. But I believed if I didn’t get aggressive and didn’t lead by example, my team won’t play aggressively,” Gautam Gambhir told Sportskeeda.
“I feel every player and every leader has the right to express themselves on the field. A player should not be judged just by how he is on the field, but how he is off it should also be looked at.”
Gambhir, during his cricketing career, had to plan for marquee batters like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, etc. But, it’s Rohit against whom he had the most difficult times.
“The only batsman that I’ve feared is Rohit Sharma. The only batter who has given me sleepless nights… No Chris Gayle, no AB de Villiers, only Rohit. I always knew I had to have a Plan A, a Plan B and probably a Plan C as well, because if Rohit is in, I don’t think anything can control him,” Gambhir told Star Sports.
“I’ve never planned for any other batter in the IPL except Rohit Sharma. There has been times where I had seen visuals and I said, ‘Fair enough. Plan A is fine’. But for Rohit, one night before I used to think, if this doesn’t work I have to get the other plan,” he further added.
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