With two Indian Premier League (IPL) titles under his belt as the leader of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), former India opener and World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir heaped praise on team's owner and famous Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan for his unwavering support during his playing stint with the franchise. Shah Rukh Khan doesn't just lend his name to projects, he truly believes in the people he works with. This dedication extends to his role as owner of the KKR. Recently, KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir appeared on a podcast alongside Manish Pandey. During the conversation, Gambhir discussed his experience with the team. Surprisingly, he revealed that despite their long association, he and Shah Rukh Khan have rarely spoken specifically about cricket. Despite the lack of cricketing conversations, Gambhir went on to shower Shah Rukh Khan with praise. He declared him to be the best team owner in the entire IPL.
"I've said numerous times that he (Shah Rukh Khan) is the best owner I've ever worked with. I don’t think in the seven years of my captaincy, we had a cricket conversation for seven minutes except for that rough patch when I was on the verge of dropping myself," Gambhir said in the latest episode of the KKR Knights Dugout Podcast.
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He elaborated on how SRK never wavered in his belief in him as a performer.
"I went and spoke to him, and the only thing he told me was that, till you are here, you are not going to drop yourself. That's the only conversation related to cricket that I had with him in seven years. He told me, 'You won't drop yourself. Whatever happens, you will play all the games. Then things turned around," Gambhir stated.
"Imagine an owner, who himself is such a great achiever, not even talking about cricket. He trusted my decision-making. I'm not saying that in my seven years of being with KKR, I always made the right decision. I have made some of the worst decisions, but he never questioned my decisions," he concluded.
KKR are gearing up to take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in match 36 of the IPL 2024 at the iconic Eden Gardens on Sunday, April 21. Riding on their impressive campaign, they are high at number two in the IPL 2024's points table with four wins in six matches. RCB, on the other hand, are struggling this season with only one win from seven games. KKR's last outing saw them going down to Rajasthan Royals (RR) despite a valiant century from Sunil Narine. Meanwhile, RCB also suffered a defeat in their previous match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), losing by 25 runs. Faf du Plessis and Dinesh Karthik played well for RCB scoring 62 and 83 runs respectively. Talking about KKR and RCB's head-to-head encounters, Kolkata have won 20 out of 34 matches played against Bengaluru.
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