“Paise ka Bahut Bada Pressure Tha”: Gautam Gambhir Once Revealed Why He Hardly Wore a Smile During His Years as KKR Captain

When Lucknow Super Giants mentor Gautam Gambhir was seen smiling in Mohali during his team’s encounter against Punjab Kings during the ongoing 16th season of the Indian Premier League, commentators and fans couldn’t stop themselves from emphasizing how rare an occurrence it is on a Cricket field.

Gambhir, in fact, has mostly been this poker-faced faced individual who just means business the moment he is involved in a contest, be it in the capacity of a player or otherwise.

During an interaction with the Indian news channel ‘Aaj Tak‘, a few years ago, the former Indian batter had revealed the reason for him smiling less often during his years as the skipper of the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Gautam Gambhir Once Revealed Why He Hardly Wore a Smile During His Years as KKR Captain

During the aforementioned interaction with renowned journalist Vikrant Gupta, Gambhir had revealed that it was his price tag and the pressure which naturally came with it after being appointed as the captain of KKR, which did not let him enjoy the game.

Gambhir was responding to the tweet by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, where the superstar had requested him to smile more often, after the former had announced his retirement from all forms of Cricket in 2018.

Roped in at a whopping amount of INR 11.04 Crore by KKR ahead of the 2011 edition of the league, Gambhir was of the view had it was his quest to prove himself and his franchise owners that he was worth the money, and the pressure of the same did reflect on his face and demeanor until he skippered the side till 2017.

“Mere upar bahut pressure tha, iss tarike ka main insaan hun” – Gambhir

Explaining his approach towards the game as KKR skipper Gambhir had remarked, “Mere upar bahut pressure tha, iss tarike ka main insaan hun. Agar unhone mujhe 11.5 Crore (sic.) rupye diye the, to kisi trust ke saath diye honge, kisi expectations ke saath diye honge. To jab main pehle saal KKR me gaya to mere upar bahut pressure tha, aur vo pressure pure saat saal rahe hain [My nature is such that I take a lot of pressure. If they had given me an amount as high as 11.5 Crore, they must have had quite some expectations from me to deliver. So, right since my first year with KKR until the seventh year, the performance pressure was always there].”

Gambhir further added that since he was not able to deliver for his side during the first six matches as Delhi Capitals’ skipper in 2018, he had even decided to forego the amount of INR 2.8 Crore at which he was roped in by them during the auction.