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Gautam Gambhir is one of the most successful captains in IPL history. He led the Kolkata Knight Riders to two title wins - 2012 and 2014. He is also the highest run-getter for KKR, scoring 3,345 runs in 121 innings at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 125.
Gambhir is currently a Member of Parliament. He is also a part of the Star Sports commentary team. The former Test opener has been extremely vocal about various aspects of cricket, and he does not shy away from freely expressing his views.
Some of his contentious comments have been targeted or mentioned players from the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team. Here, we take a look at three of his controversial statements which were about RCB players.
#1 Gautam Gambhir on AB de Villiers' IPL achievements
Star Sports recently did a poll of the greatest IPL batters of all time. This induced a debate among cricket fans and experts who gave their own views on the topic. AB de Villiers' name was bound to be mentioned.
However, Gautam Gambhir, the two-time IPL-winning captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), claimed that the Proteas icon could only earn personal accomplishments. He also said that de Villiers played most of his games at Bengaluru's batting-friendly M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
"AB de Villiers only had personal records in the IPL. Anybody could have scored runs in Chinnaswamy Stadium," he said on Star Sports.
Considering the iconic status of the South African batsman, this comment is bound to ruffle a few feathers.
#2 Virat Kohli's captaincy
Gautam Gambhir criticized Virat Kohli heavily ahead of the 2019 IPL. Kohli had been leading RCB for many years by then, but had failed to win the coveted trophy. The former Test cricketer felt that Kohli has been extremely fortunate and should be really grateful to the franchise for sticking with him.
"Still a long way to go. I don't see him as a shrewd captain or a tactful captain as well. And he hasn't won the IPL. So ultimately a captain is only as good as his record till the time you don't win the IPL. There are people who have won the trophy three times... there is MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. So I think he has a long way to go," Gambhir told Star Sports.
#3 RCB-KKR 'rivalry'
Gautam Gambhir stated prior to a KKR-RCB game in 2020 that there is no special rivalry between the two teams since the Knight Riders have twice won the IPL title. Fans mocked him after RCB defeated KKR by 8 wickets.
His own words bit him back due to the way KKR performed and started a social media trend. He received hilarious trolling for his pre-match remarks, and Twitter was flooded with memes.
