Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Gautam Gambhir is reportedly close to completing his comeback to the Knight Riders franchise after 7 years.
Gambhir is likely to leave the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) franchise, for whom he’s been part of in both of its seasons as their mentor, and would then join KKR again for IPL 2024.
Gautam Gambhir recently met KKR owner Shah Rukh Khan at the latter’s house in Mannat and posted a picture of the same meeting on his social media handles. A couple of days later, Jagran News reported that in the meeting with Shah Rukh Khan, not only did Gambhir discuss his return to KKR, but also the duo talked about retentions and new players to buy in the auction.
This could mean that in the coming weeks, Gautam Gambhir could announce his resignation as LSG’s mentor and sign with KKR again.
“Gambhir met Shah Rukh Khan on Wednesday evening at his bungalow Mannat. The meeting went for 1.5 hours,” Jagran news reported.
According to the sources in KKR, the paper added, that Gambhir is strongly willing to make a return to KKR after leaving the franchise in 2017.
Gautam Gambhir likely to leave LSG’s Global Mentor position for KKR return
KKR haven’t produced the desired results in the last two seasons, failing to reach the playoffs for two seasons in a row, under Shreyas Iyer and then under Nitish Rana.
On the other hand, Gautam Gambhir mentored Lucknow Super Giants to the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, though KL Rahul’s side failed to reach the finals.
Reportedly, Gambhir was not on board with the appointment of Australia’s Justin Langer as the new head coach, replacing Andy Flower. Interestingly, it was only last year that Gautam Gambhir was named the Global Mentor of the Super Giants franchise, which has a team in SA20 as well.
KKR won both of its trophies under Gambhir’s captaincy, in 2012 and 2014, and has since reached only one final, in 2021 under Eoin Morgan, but lost the final to CSK.
The news of Gambhir’s potential homecoming to KKR was further strengthened when KKR’s Nitish Rana commented on Gambhir’s photo with Shah Rukh: “True kings in their own fields! Could this be a sign of a homecoming? Just wondering.”
