Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor Gautam Gambhir warmly embraced Royal Challengers Bengalurus (RCB) captain Virat Kohli at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium amidst the exciting IPL 2024 season. One cannot overlook the transformation in their relationship following a heated altercation last season.
Gautam Gambhir joked about his embrace with Kohli, predicting that KKR will win the Fair Play Award.
During his participation on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube show Kutti Stories with Ash, he stated:
“Honestly, I’ll tell you, this year, I thought that we would be at the top of Fair Play Award table because of what has happened in Chinnaswamy. There is no even competition, irrespective of where we are on the points table, but we’ve got to be at the top of the fair play award but still, we are at the bottom.”
KKR finished the IPL 2024 league stage as the top team. However, they are now in sixth place in the Fair Play Award table, with 134 points from 14 games.
Gautam Gambhir Reflects on KKR’s Position in IPL 2024 Fair Play Award Table
Gautam Gambhir claimed that Kolkata had played extremely fairly during the season. He jokingly claimed that the team’s performance in the dugout is solely responsible for their place in the bottom half of the Fair Play Award.
“Someone sent me a message a couple of days back: KKR is where KKR is at the moment. I said, yeah. In the top, no. In fair play, at number 10. Is there a trophy? I said, no. And I still don’t understand. We played pretty fair. What wrong have we done in the last five games? I don’t think so we’ve done anything wrong. And still we are number 10. Probably it’s just because I’m sitting in that dugout.”
Gautam Gambhir
Gambhir mentioned that Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) were similarly in the bottom half of the Fair Play Award rankings when he was their trainer last year.
“Unfortunately, even then I was the backbencher. I was made to sit at the last bench. It’s been going with me since I was a young kid and it’s continued like that. The moment I’m there with any franchise, the fair play award, we are the where? We are the what? Number 9 or number 10? Last year LSG was number 9, this year KKR is number 10.”
Gautam Gambhir
KKR and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are poised for an intense clash at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on the upcoming Tuesday May 21 in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2024. The triumphant team of this highstakes battle will secure a spot in the final showdown where glory awaits them.