'Gautam Gambhir has an indelible impression in KKR's history' - Aakash Chopra
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has opined that Gautam Gambhir has left an indelible imprint in Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) IPL history. Chopra, a former KKR player himself, believes that the franchise owes a lot to Gambhir for the manner in which he transformed the team into a winning unit.
Aakash Chopra reflected on KKR's 12-year journey in the IPL on his YouTube channel, dividing the period into three separate eras.
"You can split split KKR's history in three parts - first was Sourav Ganguly's era from 2008 to 2010, then Gautam Gambhir from 2011 to 2017 and Dinesh Karthik from 2018 onwards."
The reputed commentator mentioned that the first three years with Sourav Ganguly as the primary leader were quite chaotic even though the franchise had assembled the best support staff in the league.
"The first few years were of great turmoil. Shahrukh Khan had put together the best support staff with John Buchanan, Andrew Leipus and Adrian Le Roux. They wanted to make the world's best franchise but the start was not good."
Aakash Chopra recalled KKR making drastic changes after a rather unsuccessful first year of the IPL, even opting to appoint Brendon McCullum as the captain with disastrous results.
"In the first year, they finished 6th. John Buchanan, Shahrukh Khan and the fans were disappointed, so they changed everything the next year. Brendon McCullum was made the captain when the IPL was played in South Africa but they finished 8th."
The 42-year-old observed that even after Sourav Ganguly was reinstated as the captain in 2010, KKR could manage just a 6th place finish, forcing them to make wholesale changes before IPL 2011.
"When they came back to India, Sourav Ganguly was reinstated again but it also did not change the situation much and they finished 6th again. So, the first three years were forgettable years, so they had to make changes."
He considered KKR's decision to let go of Sourav Ganguly and opt for someone else when Dada was still playing as a bold step, keeping in mind the expected negative reactions from the huge fan base.
"It was a landmark moment in KKR's history when they decided to overhaul and find a new leader without thinking that the Kolkata crowd may not fill the Eden Gardens."
Aakash Chopra observed that the change of captaincy to Gautam Gambir yielded immediate results with KKR qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in 2011.
"So they appointed Gautam Gambir as captain and KKR finished at No.4, they qualified for the playoffs for the first time."
He lauded Gambhir's approach to captaincy, which was built on instilling the belief in the players and giving them the requisite freedom to showcase their talent.
"Gautam Gambhir's captaincy, the players were good under both him and Dada, but he gave a lot of confidence to some of the players. Whichever player you talk to who has played under Gautam, every player has praised him a lot that he is a very good captain and empowers them. That quality was evident from the beginning."
Aakash Chopra also praised Gautam Gambhir for leading by example and having an aggressive streak to his captaincy.
"One more thing that was special about Gautam was, he asked the players not to do what he says but to do what he does. He was leading from the front, he was an aggressive captain and that actually showed."
He listed down the players who came into prominence under Gautam Gambhir including Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Chris Lynn, Manvinder Bisla, Rajat Bhatia, Suryakumar Yadav, Shakib Al Hasan and Ryan ten Doeschate.
Aakash Chopra highlighted the success KKR enjoyed under Gautam Gambhir as they lifted the trophy on two occasions while failing to qualify for the playoffs just twice in the seven years.
"After reaching the playoffs in 2011, they became the champions in 2012 for the first time, 2013 was a bad year when they finished 7th but bounced back again to become the champions in 2014, league stage in 2015 and 2016 and 2017 were also not bad as they finished 4th and 3rd. So, they didn't make the playoffs only two times and became champions two times under Gautam Gambhir."
Aakash Chopra emphatically stated that Gautam Gambhir has left an indelible mark in KKR's IPL history, with the franchise indebted to him for transforming them into a winning combination.
"Gautam Gambhir has an indelible impression in KKR's history. Whenever KKR's history is read, they will owe a huge debt to what Gautam Gambhir did for their team."
Aakash Chopra on KKR's journey under Dinesh Karthik
Aakash Chopra mentioned that KKR opted to invest most of their money on four overseas match-winners - Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Mitchell Starc - while appointing Dinesh Karthik as their captain in 2018.
"Then they made Dinesh Karthik the captain. The biggest change was that they decided to spend the auction purse on 4 big players - Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Mitchell Starc."
He pointed out that even though Starc failed to turn up for them, they continued to follow the same strategy by shelling out big bucks for Pat Cummins.
"Of course Starc didn't turn up and things changed, now Pat Cummins has come, again a huge purse. So they opted for 4 overseas runaway match-winners. They invested on Dinesh Karthik as the captain who had been playing for a long time."
Aakash Chopra observed that the strategy has produced mixed results for KKR, who have reached the playoffs once in the last two seasons.
"But if you see the performances over the last 2 years, they reached the playoffs once under DK when they finished 3rd in 2018 and 5th in 2019, where they missed it by a whisker."
Aakash Chopra signed off by highlighting KKR's rather indifferent record against the two most successful teams in the IPL, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
"If you look at KKR's history, they have a very bad record against Mumbai Indians. Mumbai has been their bogey team with a win percentage of 24%. The other team against whom they have bent their knees is Chennai Super Kings with a win percentage of 35%. So, they have been found wanting against the two best teams."
KKR would be looking to bag their 3rd IPL title under Dinesh Karthik's leadership in IPL 2020. They would be banking on their four prominent foreign recruits - Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins and Eoin Morgan - along with youngsters like Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav to deliver the goods for them.