Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor Gautam Gambhir finally opened up on why he doesn't like to smile often during IPL 2024 matches. Gambhir has always been in a serious mood and didn't react much when the match was going on.
The former Indian cricketer was an aggressive player during his playing days and continued with the same mentality and attitude during his stint with Lucknow Super Giants as a mentor in IPL 2022 and 2023. Gautam Gambhir's aggression was on display when he was involved in a heated argument with Virat Kohli after RCB star batter had a verbal interaction with LSG bowler Naveen ul Haq in the last IPL season.
Due to his serious demeanour, Gautam Gambhir was often trolled by the fans for his lack of visible emotion and stern expression.
Speaking to Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube Channel, Gautam Gambhir stated that people don't come to watch him smile rather to support him as the fans want him to win the matches. KKR added that he is not in entertainment and his job is to return to dressing room with a win.
"You know, he doesn't smile, he doesn't laugh, he is always intense, he's always grumpy, he's always walking on the edge, he always has the game face on. People don't come to watch me smile, they come to watch me win." Gambhir said.
"I'm not in entertainment, I'm not a Bollywood actor, not in corporate, I'm a cricketer. I'm into performing art. My job is that I want to come back in a winning dressing room. I've the right to do everything within the spirit of the game to beat the opponents." he added.
Gautam Gambhir played a vital role in the success of Lucknow Super Giants as a mentor in the last two seasons as the team qualified for the playoffs twice on the trot in IPL 2022 and 2023. After serving two seasons with LSG, Gambhir returned to Kolkata Knight Riders in the same capacity of mentoring role ahead of IPL 2024.
The 42-year-old was the skipper of KKR and led the team to IPL titles in 2012 and 2014. Gambhir played a crucial role as a captain and player in the success of Kolkata Knight Riders from 2011 to 2017.
'SRK has been the best owner I have worked with': Gautam Gambhir
Kolkata Knight Riders Gautam Gambhir hailed the franchise's co-owner and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan as the best owner he has worked with. He revealed that SRH never asked me a single question about team's performance when he captained the side for seven years from 2011 to 2017.
'I've said many times in the past as well that SRK has been the best owner I've worked with. The reason is not because I'm back again in KKR and is because in that seven years of me captaining, we had not spoken 70 seconds about cricket." Gambhir said.
"He had never asked me a single question about cricket in those seven years. We have never spoken about cricket. It's been 20 days since I joined the team, I haven't spoken about cricket with SRK." he added.
The return of Gautam Gambhir turned the fortunes of Kolkata Knight Riders as they were the first team to qualify for the playoffs after finishing the league stage on top of the points table with 20 points.
Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 1 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, May 21.
