‘Entire Bengal Will Be Cheering’: Gautam Gambhir Recalls Leading KKR Against Sourav Ganguly at Eden Gardens – News18
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Gautam Gambhir at KKR (Credit: X)
Gautam Gambhir recalled the support he got from the Kolkata Knight Riders fans while going up against Sourav Ganguly, who was the captain of Pune Warriors.
Gautam Gambhir has been called the adopted son of Bengal after he led Kolkata Knight Riders to two Indian Premier League (IPL) titles in 2012 and 2014 and is currently the mentor to Shreyas Iyer’s KKR.
During an interview with Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube chat show ‘Kutti Stories with Ash’, the former India star recalled the support he got from the Kolkata fans while going up against Sourav Ganguly, who was the captain of Pune Warriors.
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“A lot of people told me there will be a lot of backlashes because you are replacing someone like Sourav Ganguly. I still remember my first day in Kolkata the amount of love I received was unimaginable. Never thought that I would receive that kind of love because a lot of things were spoken about when Sourav was replaced. But not even once in my seven years of captaincy I was not made to feel that I did not belong to Kolkata and that’s my relationship with the people,” Gambhir told Ashwin on his YouTube channel.
“I have said it not because I was captaining them I have said it from my heart that Kolkata is my home and that’s the emotion I carry because I remember this one game. We were playing against Pune Warriors and where I think the entire stadium was divided into Purple and Blue and Sourav was leading Pune Warriors. There was this huge article on the match day where it was written in an article that Bengal would be divided for the second time after partition. It was the headline of the front page.”
“I remember walking out of the hotel we were staying in the same hotel and there was this guy at the gate he said that when you walk today when you go for the toss just remember the entire Bengal will be only cheering for you because KKR belongs to Kolkata and you will not walk alone today and I carried that thought with me to the toss and not even once in my seven years of captaincy I have never walked alone.”
“The people of Kolkata have walked with me and that’s the strength I got from Kolkata and that’s the reason that when I come back to Kolkata it is always about giving back to them,” he added.
