Gautam Gambhir is having a good time in the IPL 2024. Under his mentorship, Kolkata Knight Riders finished on top of the standing in the league stage. During his playing days, Gambhir led KKR to its first IPL title. Not only in the IPL, Gambhir has an illustrious record in the Indian cricket team. He had a major role to play in India winning the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup. However, Gautam Gambhir has now revealed how he had to struggle in age-group tournaments.
In a chat show with Ravichandran Ashwin, Gambhir delved in details on how his growing up years in cricket was like.
“When I was growing up, maybe when I was 12 or 13 years old, I didn’t get selected when I tried out for my first under-14 tournament because I didn’t touch the selector’s feet. From then I promised myself that I will never ever touch anyone’s feet and I do not let anyone touch my feet,” Gambhir told Ashwin on a YouTube show.
Gambhir said that his affluent family background was also mentioned whenever he encountered failure.
“I remember, coming through my career every time I failed whether it be in the under-16, under-19, Ranji Trophy or even initially in my international career, people would say that you come from a (well-off) family, you don’t need to play cricket. You’ve got so many (options), you can join your dad’s business,” he said.
“So that was the biggest perception that was hanging on my head. People did not realise that I wanted it more than them. I wanted to beat that perception. So when I was able to do that, no other perception ever bothers me. The toughest perception for me to beat in my life was that I didn’t want it that hard. I wanted it harder than any of them.”
In the same show, Gambhir also opened up on his relationship with KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan.
“It is the trust of the owner as well I have said it many times in the past I think SRK is the best owner I have ever worked with. The reason is not because now I am back with the KKR. The reason is that in the seven years of me captaining, we had not spoken 70 seconds about cricket. He had never asked me a single question on cricket in those seven years. Can you imagine?” Gambhir said on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube channel.