Wanted to drop myself during last year's IPL: Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir has faced many adversities in his cricketing career till date, the most recent being the Test series against England, in July-August, where he managed just 18 runs from 2 Tests at an average of 6.25.

Despite not making the best use of the chances on his comeback to the national team after a lengthy stay out, the left-hander is in no mood to give up; he has, instead, vowed to continue fighting and regain his place back in the Indian team not just in Test cricket but across all the three formats.

“Right since the beginning of my career, I’ve had to fight my way through; I had no other option. So, fighting for my place is something that has been ingrained in my nature and it is the only thing that has carried me so far in my career,” Gambhir said in an exclusive interview to BCCI TV.

Talking about his ouster from the Indian team, and whether the retirements of stalwarts like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had put too much pressure on him to perform, he said, “It wasn’t any different for me because irrespective of who the other members of the batting lineup are, I always put a lot of pressure on myself. However, I do feel that I started over-expecting from myself. That could be a reason why I lost my form.

“At times, you have to be realistic, especially when you’re playing overseas. For me it was always about scoring big hundreds. If I didn’t score a century, I started to think that I am not contributing enough to the team. When you start setting unrealistic targets, you put unwarranted pressure on yourself. So, yes, I was expecting too much out of myself.”

Enjoying KKR captaincy

Gambhir is currently captaining Kolkata Knight Riders in the Champions League T20, and they are certainly enjoying a fabulous run under his leadership. The Kolkata-based outfit has now won 12 games in a row including last season’s Indian Premier League final, against Kings XI Punjab, which saw them being crowned IPL champions for the second time in three seasons. Gambhir said that he expects 100% commitment from his players every time they take the field and is glad that the players have been responding positively to his leadership.

“Regarding my leadership style, it comes from my character. I want to win at all costs even if it is a game on a PlayStation. I do understand that you can't win all the time but I can't relate to lack of effort and that is what ticks me off. I take a lot of pride in the way KKR dressing room has responded to my leadership. Our winning streak stems from that,” the 32-year-old said.

Wanted to drop myself

The 32-year-old didn’t have the greatest of starts to IPL 7 getting dismissed for a hat-trick of ducks, before turning it around midway through with a hat-trick of half-centuries. He has now revealed that, at times like those, he wanted to drop himself. He said: “To be honest Gautam the leader is very harsh on Gautam the batsman. In fact there were occasions in this year's IPL when Gautam the captain was about to drop Gautam the batsman. I mean the way I see it is that like rest of the 10 players I should also be in the team on merit and definitely not because I am the captain.”

“In that sense I don't think Gautam the batsman is breathing easy yet as I have just one half century in three games. But yes it is a tribute to our team culture that we have had 12 in a row, hopefully many more to come.”