"I did not get selected because I did not touch the selector’s feet" - Gautam Gambhir narrates old incident 

Former Team India opener Gautam Gambhir recently stated that he wasn't picked for an Under-14 team after he refused to touch the feet of the selector. He mentioned that from that moment, he decided that he would never touch anyone's feet.

Gambhir suggested that he also didn't allow anyone else to touch his feet either. Narrating the incident, he said on Ravichandran Ashwin's YouTube channel:

"When I was growing up when I was 12, 13 I remember my first under 14 tournament I did not get selected because I did not touch the selector's feet and from there on I promised myself that I will never ever touch anyone's feet and I did not do not ever let anyone touch my feet and I remember coming through my career."

Gautam Gambhir is currently part of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team management. He was roped in as a mentor by the franchise ahead of the ongoing IPL 2024. The side finished the league stage as the table-toppers, claiming 20 points from 14 fixtures.

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"That was the biggest perception that was hanging on my head" - Gautam Gambhir on people telling him to join his father's business

Gautam Gambhir also spoke about how whenever there were a few failures in his career, people would tell him to join his family business. He emphasized that he wanted to beat that perception and prove how badly he wanted to succeed in his cricketing career.

"Every time whether it was under 16 under 19 Ranji Trophy or even initially in my international career every time I would fail people would say that you come from a family (where) you don't need to play cricket. You can go and join your dad's business. So, that was the biggest perception that was hanging on my head and people did not realize that I wanted it more than them because I wanted to beat that perception," Gambhir elaborated.

"So, when I was able to beat that perception no other perception ever bothers me because for me the toughest perception in my career or in my life was to beat that perception where people thought that I did not want it that hard and I wanted it more hard than any of them," he added.

KKR will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, May 21, in the Qualifier 1 of IPL 2024.