Gautam Gambhir reveals the biggest regret of his captaincy tenure with KKR

Gautam Gambhir is known as one of the most successful captains of the IPL. Under Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Riders won two IPL titles, in 2012 and 2014. These are the only two IPL trophies won by the franchise till date. Gambhir played a crucial role with the bat in both the seasons, especially in 2012, when he scored 590 runs in 17 matches at an average of 39.33.

In 2014, Gambhir began the season with scores of 0, 0, 0, 1 in his first four games. But he showed tremendous fighting spirit and resilience to take KKR to the second title win in three years. His captaincy tenure with KKR was mostly a successful one.

Gautam Gambhir reveals the biggest regret of his captaincy tenure

Although Gambhir took Kolkata Knight Riders to two titles, he still has a big regret. While speaking to Sportskeeda, Gambhir revealed that one of the biggest regrets of his captaincy tenure was not fully utilizing Suryakumar Yadav's potential.

“A leader's role is to identify the best potential and show it to the world. If there is one regret I have in my seven years of captaincy is that me and as a team never managed to use Suryakumar Yadav to the best of his potential,” Gambhir admitted.

"And the reason was down to combinations. You can only play one player at No. 3. And as a leader, you have to think about the other 10 players in the XI as well. He would have been way more effective at No. 3, but was equally good at No. 7," the former India opener added.

Suryakumar Yadav played for KKR from 2014 to 2017. He mostly played the role of a finisher at No. 6 and No. 7. He was impressive with his valuable cameos down the order. Suryakumar was appointed KKR's vice-captain in 2015 but his form started going down. Gambhir revealed the reason behind choosing Suryakumar Yadav as the vice-captain of the team.

“He was also a team man. Anyone can be a good player, but being a team man is a difficult task. Whether you play him at No. 6 or 7 or bench him, he was always smiling and always ready to perform for the team. That is why we appointed him as the vice-captain,” Gambhir said.

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After taking the retirement from IPL in 2018, Gambhir decided to join the coaching staff. He was roped in by Lucknow Super Giants for their inaugural IPL season in 2022. He worked with LSG for the first two seasons before coming back to KKR for IPL 2024. Since then, Kolkata Knight Riders have witnessed a change in fortunes as they became the first team to qualify for IPL 2024 playoffs.

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