Gautam Gambhir, the former captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) who led his team to win two Indian Premiere League (IPL) Trophies in 2012 and 2014 has returned to the team as a team mentor of the franchise and will be working with the head coach Chandrakant Pandit.
In 2012, KKR defeated the Chennai Super Kings while in 2014, the team under the captaincy of Gambhir had defeated Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings). It was under Gambhir’s captaincy only that the team was able to reach the playoffs for five times and had also reached the final of the Champions League T20 in 2014. Gautam Gambhir took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share his experience and said that he was hungry to win more with the franchise.
In the post, Gambhir wrote: “I am not an emotional person and not many things move me. But this is different. This is back to where it all started. “Today, there is a lump in my throat and fire in my heart as I think about slipping into that purple and gold jersey once again. I am not only coming back to KKR but I am coming back to the city of joy. I am back. I am hungry. I am number 23,” he added. The owner of the team KKR, Shahrukh Khan had also showered his praise on Gambhir while saying: “Gautam has always been part of the family and this is our Captain coming back home in a different avatar as a ‘mentor’. He was sorely missed and now we all look forward to Chandu Sir and Gautam in instilling the never-say-die spirit and of sportsmanship they stand for, in creating magic with Team KKR.”
The former Indian batsman was the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for the past IPL season and he expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the owner of LSG, Dr Sanjiv Goenka as well.
