Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are flying high in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, sitting top of the points table with 16 points from 12 matches. KKR fans have largely credited mentor and former captain Gautam Gambhir for the franchise’s stunning form this season. As a player, Gambhir led KKR to two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014 respectively. He spent the last few years of his playing career at Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) before joining Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) as a mentor in 2022.

After spending two seasons in the dugout at LSG, Gambhir rejoined KKR for a similar role prior to the ongoing season.

Gambhir has certainly brought the winning mentality back at KKR, who are a win away from securing their place in the IPL 2024 playoffs.

During a recent interaction, a KKR fan got emotional while speaking about Gambhir, who was touched by the man’s gesture

The fan broke down as he was asking Gambhir not to leave KKR ever again.

“Just want to say, aap hume chodh kar aur mat jayiga (Please don’t leave us again. Hume jitne takleef hua hai aapke jaane se, hum aapko bata nahi sakte (I can’t explain how heartbroken we were after you left KKR). I want to dedicate a verse from a Bengali song for you. ‘I will keep you right here, I won’t leave you’. You are our heart. We keep you close to our heart. Please don’t leave us ever, again. We don’t want to you to go. Please sir, please,” the fan was heard as saying.

Aapni amader hriday e thaaken! pic.twitter.com/v8u801GOwN

— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 11, 2024

Since returning to the franchise as a mentor, Gambhir has been pretty active in the dugout, passing on tactical aide to captain Shreyas Iyer during timeouts and breaks.

Gambhir’s ploy to back Sunil Narine as an opener along with World No.2 T20I batter Phil Salt has been a masterstroke.

The duo have scored bulk of the team’s runs, giving it the perfect platform in power-plays to post six 200-plus totals from eight matches batting first.

With 32 sixes to his name, Narine is also the second in the list behind Abhishek Sharma (35).

The consistency with which Narine keeps churning out high scores match after match has been phenomenal.

With one century and three fifties, the Trinidadian has also been their leading run-getter, amassing 461 runs at a strike-rate of 183.66. Englishman Salt has scored 429 runs at a strike-rate of 183.33.

(With PTI Inputs)