IPL 2024 will see the return of Gautam Gambhir in the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) dugout after the 2017 season. Gambhir led the franchise from 2011-2017, helping them win the title twice during this period.
This time around, the former Indian opener will wear the mentor’s hat for the two-time winners and hope for the Shreyas Iyer-led side to lift their third IPL trophy.
After joining the franchise on Thursday (March 14), Gambhir spoke about new recruit Mitchell Starc. The Australian pacer was bought by KKR in the IPL 2024 mini-auction, held in Dubai last December, for a whopping INR 24.75 crore (247.5 million); becoming the costliest buy ever. Gambhir feels the Aussie speedster will be KKR’s X-factor this season
Speaking after reaching Kolkata, Gambhir told the press, “I had already said on the auction table that he [Starc] is an X-factor and I am sure he is going to deliver. And there’s no such pressure of a price tag. I hope that what he has done in international cricket, he can do the same for KKR.”
Starc returns to the IPL after nine years, having played two seasons for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2014 and 2015; ending with 34 wickets. He was bought by the KKR franchise in 2018, for INR 9.4 crore (94 million), before he withdrew his participation ahead of the season. All eyes are on his return after being sold for a whopping amount.
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On his own return to the KKR franchise, Gambhir stated, “I have always mentioned that KKR to me is not a franchise, but an emotion. I am thus happy to be back. I know there will be expectations and I hope to live up to it and make the fans happy.”
Gambhir was part of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for two years, serving as a mentor, before rejoining the Kolkata-based franchise. KKR begin their season on March 23 (Saturday), hosting Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
KKR squad for IPL 2024: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer (c), Jason Roy, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Sakib Hussain.