Former Indian World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir stated that his former Indian teammate Ashish Nehra pushed him to eat a duck if he didn’t want to be out zero as he was having dinner with a few friends at the team hotel ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders’ fourth match during the Indian Premier League 2024.
Gautam Gambhir recently recounted his disastrous start to the 2014 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. At the start of the tournament, the then-Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain had three consecutive ducks, while he scored one run in the fourth match of the tournament.
Speaking on ANI’s podcast, Gautam Gambhir revealed that during the 2014 IPL, a few Delhi players were having dinner, and Ashish Nehra ordered a duck, indicating that if he didn’t taste it, he might score another duck.
“Four or five guys from Delhi were sitting together at the dinner table. Ashish Nehra ordered a duck. He told me to have the duck for dinner; otherwise, I might get another duck in the next match. I just tasted it. I scored one run in that match, and Nehra even messaged me after that,” Gautam Gambhir said.
From 2011 to 2017, Gautam Gambhir was an integral part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) success. Under his captaincy, the Kolkata-based team qualified for the playoffs for the first time and went on to win the championships in 2012 and 2014.
That Was My Only Cricket Conversation With Shah Rukh Khan In Seven Years – Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir also shared details of his conversation with KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan following three ducks in a row during the 2014 season. He suggested that he wanted to quit the starting lineup, but Shah Rukh disagreed and wanted him to lead the team, where they went on the win their second IPL championship.
“2014 in Abu Dhabi, I started the IPL with three ducks in a row, I got one 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 was standing in the lobby. He took me to 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,” Gautam Gambhir added.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have signed former Indian batter Gautam Gambhir as a new “mentor” ahead of the 2024 IPL season. Joining KKR would be a homecoming for Gambhir, who spent his most successful IPL season with the Kolkata-based side and would be keen to inspire the two-time champions to their third IPL title.
