New Delhi. Indian cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir had shared a funny anecdote from IPL. How bad was the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season in 2014 for them. Gambhir, the then captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, was out for zero in three consecutive matches at the beginning of the tournament. Gambhir mentioned a funny incident in which former fast bowler Ashish Nehra was involved. Gambhir told that Ashish Nehra had asked him to order duck for dinner so that he could avoid getting out on zero for the fourth time.
Gambhir had revealed on Harbhajan Singh’s show, “Four-five boys from Delhi were sitting at the dinner table. Ashish Nehra ordered duck. He told me to eat duck in dinner, otherwise I might get duck again in the next match. I just tasted a little bit. I scored one run in that match and Nehra also messaged me after that.”
After being out for a duck for the third consecutive time, Gambhir told that he had a conversation with team co-owner Shahrukh Khan. Gambhir said that he wanted to exclude himself from the playing 11, but Shahrukh was against it. “In 2014 in Abu Dhabi, I started the IPL with three ducks in a row. In the fourth match, I scored one run. We had lost four of our first five matches. We were returning to the Ritz Carlton after losing the game. He was standing in the lobby. He took me aside and asked what was happening. I said I was thinking of ruling myself out.
Gambhir recalled, “He told me, ‘As long as you are here and want to play, you can’t rule yourself out.’ He took a promise from me that as long as I am in the team, I will play every match. After that I scored two-three half-centuries consecutively and we won in 2014. This was my only cricket conversation with Shahrukh in the seven years of captaincy.
Comments are closed.