Be it in the capacity of a player or in his role as the mentor of Lucknow Super Giants at present, Gautam Gambhir has made sure to not shy away from displaying his raw emotions to the ever-ready cameras panning towards him.
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His temperature perhaps soars higher by a couple of notches whenever he is involved in an IPL fixture featuring former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli because of some past moments of uneasy tension between the two from the 2013 edition.
During the 2016 edition of the coveted league, Gambhir had yet again indulged himself in an act which was not only unnecessary but had resultantly cost him 15% of match fee owing to unruly behavior.
Gautam Gambhir Kicked Chair in Frustration Post KKR Win vs RCB in IPL 2016
En route a 186-run targetagainst RCB in Bengaluru, Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders had lost four wickets by the 11th over of the chase. However, the pair of Yusuf Pathan (60*) and Andre Russell (39) nailed their respective power game to see their side home with five deliveries to spare.
The moment Suryakumar Yadav (10*) smashed the winning boundary, a pumped-up Gambhir could not control his emotions and vented his frustration by kicking a chair placed in the dug out across the boundary rope.
The southpaw batter, who was still with his pads on, was more than just excited with the way his team snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Post kicking the chair, he perhaps also hurled a couple of expletives while looking at someone in the field of play.
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Gautam Gambhir Justifies His Over-Aggressive Behavior
After being fined with the Level 1 breach of the IPL code of conduct, the KKR skipper did accept his mistake while realizing that he shouldn’t have kicked the chair.
However, he was later quoted as saying by Cricket Country that despite being a role model, he, too, is entitled to have emotions and feelings which get naturally displayed on the field of action.
“My brush with the authorities is not new. While I am repentant and embarrassed, I have never got the answer to one very basic question – Aren’t role models entitled to have emotions? Aren’t they human enough to express themselves or release their pent-up feelings? I think they, too, are by-products of the times and the society they are living in.”
Eyeing on his third IPL title, Gambhir did manage to take KKR through to the playoffs that season by finishing at the fourth spot on the points table post the league stage. However, Kolkata ended up losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 22 runs in the Eliminator to crash out of the tournament.