Gautam Gambhir leaving KKR even before IPL 2024 starts? Indian icon leaves fans stunned with latest update

Former Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir, who is the only captain to lead the franchise towards 2 IPL titles, feels that by the time he leaves KKR, they will be a much more successful side. Gambhir joined the East Indian outfit as the mentor after he parted ways with the Lucknow Super Giants ahead of the 2024 edition. LSG had crashed out of the playoffs last season for the second season in a row.

It was Gautam Gambhir who initiated the period of success for Kolkata Knight Riders, a franchise that had been struggling to even finish in the top 4 despite having some big names. Gambhir was bought by the Shah Rukh Khan-backed franchise for 11.04 crores and took over the captaincy role from that season onwards. He led KKR to their first-ever IPL title in just his 2nd season in charge as the captain, beating MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings on the way.

Gautam Gambhir hoping to replicate his captaincy tenure as the KKR mentor

With just 4 days left for Kolkata’s opening match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at their iconic home ground of Eden Gardens, Gautam Gambhir has made some bold statements. While speaking in a recent promotional event here in West Bengal, Gambhir claimed that when he leaves the club after the completion of his tenure, KKR will be in a much better position.

He also thanked the franchise for giving him the chance to captain the side in the first place (2011), claiming that he didn’t make KKR successful, it was KKR who made him successful.

“I can assure you that whenever I leave this place (KKR), we will be in a much better position. I want to make one thing clear. I didn’t make KKR successful, KKR made me successful. KKR made me a leader.” – Gautam Gambhir said at a recent event.

The 2011 Cricket World Cup winner went on to further thank the franchise owners – Shah Rukh Khan and Venky Mysore for putting up with him despite his short-tempered behavior. Gambhir said in his own words that he is indeed a very tough guy to handle but SRK and Mysore did massively well to make him feel at home. Gautam Gambhir also revealed the chat he had with the owners who didn’t interfere in the sporting matters and let him handle things alone.

“I’m a very tough guy to handle. I have to thank SRK (Shah Rukh Khan) and (Venky) Mysore (Managing Director of KKR) for putting up with my tantrums all these years. He (Shah Rukh) told me the same thing that he had told me when I joined as a player. ‘This is your franchise, make it or break it.” – Gambhir concluded. 

KKR Full squad for IPL 2024

Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer (c), Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain.

Following their clash against SRH, the Knight Riders will take away trips to Bangalore and then to Vishakhapatnam to take on arch-rivals Delhi Capitals on March 29 and 3rd April.