Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan has recalled Gautam Gambhir’s time as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) during the IPL and how he was able to influence MS Dhoni each time they had a face-off.
These days, Gambhir is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Gambhir’s most recent altercation with Virat Kohli has brought back memories of his on-field spats with the opposition during his playing days. Even though it is well known that Dhoni and Gambhir often talked to each other, Irfan recently revealed what only few people would have known until now.
The former Rising Pune Supergiant all-rounder threw light on the IPL 2016 match between Gambhir’s KKR and Dhoni’s team.
Irfan said Gambhir’s field placements “rattled Dhoni” and continued to do so for many years until the former retired from the sport.
“Gautam Gambhir played with the ego of MS Dhoni when he was the captain of KKR. He was the only one who succeeded in rattling him for years,” said Irfan, Dhoni’s teammate in RPS.
“MS was rattled to the core by the field setting,” he made this statement while analysing the match between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and CSK.
Notably, Gambhir excelled in field placements against Dhoni in that IPL match. He gave the charge to leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and mystery spinner Sunil Narine against the CSK skipper, and his tactical move paid off as Dhoni could only manage to score 8 runs off 22 balls until the rain halted the play.
As far as the result of that match is concerned, KKR emerged victorious in the contest by eight wickets through Duckworth-Lewis method. Yusuf Pathan top-scored for his team with 37 off 18 balls. Yusuf was well supported by Manish Pandey, who scored a quick-fire 15 runs off 10 deliveries.
