WV Raman Explains How Jacques Kallis Convinced Gautam Gambhir On Opening With Robin Uthappa In IPL 2014

Former Indian cricketer WV Raman revealed how he helped Robin Uthappa get promotion in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batting order in IPL 2014.

Uthappa joined KKR in 2014 and had the longest part of his IPL career with the two-time IPL champions for a period of six seasons (2014-19).

Robin Uthappa bagged Orange Cap in IPL 2014

The Kerala player was the leading run-scorer in KKR’s victorious IPL 2014 campaign with 660 runs in 16 innings at 44 and a strike rate of 137.78. At that juncture, Uthappa became the second Indian player after Sachin Tendulkar (2010) to bag the ‘Orange Cap’ in IPL.

However, Uthappa was slotted to bat in the middle order (between No.4 and No.6) in the first five games. Uthappa aggregated 97 runs from five innings while batting in the middle order for KKR.

KKR lost four of their first six games and in the match against CSK, Uthappa opened the innings with then skipper Gautam Gambhir and scored 47 in 38 balls.

Since then the wicketkeeper-batter cemented his position as an opener for the remaining part of the tournament.

Jacques Kallis convinced Gautam Gambhir to let Robin Uthappa open the innings: WV Raman

WV Raman, who was KKR’s batting coach during IPL 2014, recalled how Utthappa was elevated to open the innings.

“KKR played the first half in UAE and victory was looking very, very far. We were losing games which were obviously winnable. Robin then came to me and said, ‘Sir tell Gauti sir I’ll open’. I went to Gauti and the team wasn’t among the runs and not winning as well,” WV Raman told Cricket.com.

“It was not a very conducive time to go to the captain and talk about the promotion of a batter who wasn’t getting runs too. From his response and body language, I realized that (Uthappa’s promotion) wasn’t going to happen.

“I went to Jacques (Kallis) and said Gauti doesn’t see any merit in what was being suggested to him. Kallis had a chat for about half an hour in Ranchi with Gambhir. He had to hard-sell it to Gautham before he agreed.

“He couldn’t say no to Jacques… and Uthappa opened and got 40 odd. Since then, Robin got back into the groove and made a lot of runs up the order. The turnaround happened and KKR won,” he added.

Uthappa is currently playing for the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2022, his second straight season after joining them last year.

Also Read: MI vs CSK: Robin Uthappa Becomes 7th Cricketer To Play 200 Matches In The IPL