Gambhir led KKR from 2011 to 2017 and under his captaincy, the franchise lifted the title twice in 2012 and 2014. Suryakumar Yadav was part of KKR from 2014 to 2017 but after that he joined Mumbai Indians and he found his mojo under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy.
New Delhi: Former Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir regretted not properly using star T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav during his captaincy days. Gambhir also opined that the reason behind that was because of combinations.
Gambhir led KKR from 2011 to 2017 and under his captaincy, the franchise lifted the title twice in 2012 and 2014. Suryakumar Yadav was part of KKR from 2014 to 2017 but after that he joined Mumbai Indians and he found his mojo under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy.
“A leader’s role is to identify the best potential and show it to the world. If there is one regret I have in my seven years of captaincy is that me and as a team never managed to use Suryakumar Yadav to the best of his potential. And the reason was down to combinations. You can only play one player at No. 3. And as a leader, you have to think about the other 10 players in the XI as well. He would have been way more effective at No. 3, but was equally good at No. 7,” Gambhir told Sportskeeda.
“He was also a team man. Anyone can be a good player, but being a team man is a difficult task. Whether you play him at No. 6 or 7 or bench him, he was always smiling and always ready to perform for the team. That is why we appointed him as the vice-captain,” he added.
Gambhir has again joined KKR in 2024 as the mentor and under his mentorship, the franchise is doing birilliant and have qualified for the playoffs. Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata are table toppers in the points table tally they won nine matches out of 13 outings.