Gautam Gambhir is “extremely excited” for his reunion with Shah Rukh Khan and KKR ahead of the IPL 2024 season.
Ahead of the IPL 2024 auction, Gambhir rejoined KKR, now in the form of their mentor, and was present at the auction table, raising the paddle for the bids of players, including Mitchell Starc.
This homecoming for Gautam Gambhir, who was with the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as their mentor in the last two seasons, was big news for the Gambhir fans as well as for the fans of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of the KKR franchise.
Shah Rukh Khan is family, KKR is an emotion for me: Gautam Gambhir
On Friday, Gambhir hosted a Q&A session on Twitter with his fans, in which he answered questions about his personal and professional life.
One Twitter user asked Gambhir how excited he is to be back with KKR and “Badshah” Shah Rukh Khan. Gambhir gave an amazing reply: “Isn’t it obvious. He is family & KKR is an emotion for me. Extremely excited!”
Check out the tweet here:
Isn’t it obvious. He is family & KKR is an emotion for me. Extremely excited! https://t.co/sTZeUnJc7D
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) December 29, 2023
The bond between Gautam Gambhir and Shah Rukh is very deep. Gambhir was the one who captained KKR to their only two IPL titles, while Shah Rukh had backed him during his tough period in IPL 2014. A couple of weeks ago, on a podcast with ANI, Gambhir recalled how Shah Rukh Khan gave all his backing and support to him when he bagged three consecutive ducks at the start of the IPL 2014 season.
He said: “2014 in Abu Dhabi, I started the IPL with three ducks in a row. I got a one run in the fourth game. We had lost four out of our first five matches. We were coming back to Ritz Carlton after we lost the game. He (Shah Rukh) was standing in the lobby. He took me on the side and asked what was happening. I said I was thinking of dropping myself.
“He told me, ’till you are there and you want to be there, you are not dropping yourself.’ He asked me to promise him that I would play every game until I was there. I got two or three half-centuries in a row and we won in 2014. That was my only cricket conversation with him in seven years of my captaincy.”
Gambhir repaid that faith from Shah Rukh by winning KKR its second IPL title that season.
