The team won two of their three titles under GG's captaincy.
Hours before the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, Joy Bhattacharjya, team director of KKR, revealed an unheard story of the former KKR batter Gautam Gambhir. During the same fixture at Chepauk in 2012, captain Gambhir was awarded the Player of the Match for his 63 runs in 52 balls. But in a great selfless act, he refused to take the award and presented it to Debabrata Das.
When Dwayne Bravo dismissed the southpaw in the first ball of the penultimate over, KKR still needed 16 runs in 11 balls to win the match. It was Das, who played a vital cameo of 11 runs in just four deliveries to take Kolkata over the line. Gambhir acknowledged this short but important knock from Das and handed him over with his POTM award.
“Felt good, Chennai fought well, our boys did a good job restricting them to 139. We know we have a lot of potential and quality, we need to a complement each other. Das needs to be given the man of the match,” said the former KKR skipper during the post-match presentation.
ALSO READ:
KKR also became the IPL champions for the first time that season by defeating CSK in the summit clash. Under Gambhir’s captaincy, the team once again lifted the silverware in 2014. KKR ended their decade-long trophy drought last season under Shreyas Iyer’s leadership, clinching their third IPL title. That time, their two-time title-winning captain returned-not on the field, but in a new role, donning the coach’s hat.
After his successful stint with KKR, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) elected GG as the head coach of Team India. He took charge from another legendary batter, Rahul Dravi,d in July 2024. Recently, the Men in Blue won the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai.
Going back to IPL, Chandrakant Pandit is the current coach of KKR. The defending champions have had a struggling start to their 2025 campaign. They have managed to win only two out of their five matches in this edition. Ajinkya Rahane and Co. will take on CSK at Chepauk tonight. As Ruturaj Gaikwad is ruled out of the tournament due to an elbow fracture, MS Dhoni will lead the Super Kings for the remaining season.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube.
