Former IPL-winning captain Gautam Gambhir recently shared his experiences as a skipper. During his IPL career, Gambhir led the Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals (formerly Delhi Daredevils).
He guided KKR to two titles in 2012 and 2014. Currently, he is serving as KKR’s mentor, and they are the first team to qualify for the Qualifier 1 match in the IPL 2024 playoffs.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda on the Match Ki Baat show, Gambhir revealed whether he ever received any captaincy tips from other players. He said:
“Honestly, I have never received any captaincy tips from anyone. I understood how captaincy works from my own experiences. I don’t want to sound arrogant or berate anyone but I became the captain that I was only because of my experiences.”
Next, Gambhir shared some insights from his time as a captain and continued:
“The one thing that I learned during my captaincy tenure was the importance of dressing room atmosphere. It is a sacred place. You share so many things with your teammates in the dressing room. Just like a temple or a gurudwara is a sacred place, the dressing room is a sacred place for a player.”
“How much you respect the environment, how you do not leak any inside information from the dressing room, how you keep it a secure environment are the things that the matter the most. A secured dressing room is a happy dressing room,” Gambhir concluded.
“One thing I don’t understand is why captains don’t attend the auctions if they are available”- Gautam Gambhir
On the same show, Gautam Gambhir noted that captains often avoid attending IPL auctions even when they aren’t occupied with international cricket. He believes that 50% of the IPL is won at the auction table, making it crucial for captains to put in extra effort during this period for the franchise.
“Auction matters a lot in IPL. It is 50% of your job. If you are assembling a squad of 22 to 24 players, you need quality, not quantity because only a quality player can take the place of another quality player,” Gambhir explained.
“One thing that I don’t understand is why don’t the captains attend the auctions if they are free. If you are the captain of your franchise and you aren’t playing international cricket at that time, then you should be part of the auction.”
“Ultimately, you have to lead the team, you have to spend time with those players for the next 2-3 months,” he concluded.
Gautam Gambhir attended auctions for KKR when he was the team’s captain. Similarly, former CSK skipper MS Dhoni would provide his input to the owners at the auction table. However, many other captains have not shown the same interest in attending auctions over the years.
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