Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Venkatesh Iyer has opened up about Gautam Gambhir’s mentorship during the franchise’s title-winning campaign in IPL 2024. Iyer revealed how Gambhir created an environment where mediocrity was not accepted and every player was expected to maintain high standards.
Gambhir returned to KKR as a mentor ahead of IPL 2024 after previously leading the franchise to two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014 as a captain. Under his mentorship, KKR won its third championship in 2024 with Shreyas Iyer as captain.
“He was sitting right behind us. There was no fear. And there was no place for mediocrity in that dressing room. You can’t play a mediocre shot or a false stroke and come sit next to him. You can’t do that,” Iyer was quoted as saying by The Cricket News.
“Not that, and it wasn’t a written rule… you could sit there if you wanted, but in my view, perhaps his aura was such that: ‘Boss, only excellence will work in this team, mediocrity will not be tolerated,’” Iyer said.
Iyer said the middle-order batters were always ready to go and bat, depending on the match situation, from the get-go.
“Our two openers, Narine and Salt, would go out to bat. Angkrish would sit there with his pads on. He just sat there, while the rest of us- me, Shreyas, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep, and Andre Russell- sat inside; all five of us would be padded up and ready to go from the second over itself.” Iyer said.
The left-hander said any batter could have batted at any given position as the order was not fixed.
“There was this competition; anyone could go in at any moment, boss. We stayed ready, like literally. I, of course, saw it from my own perspective, but looking at them, they were like lions ready to go: ‘Just send us in, we’ll go and…’ And touch wood, Salt and Narine wouldn’t get out, they wouldn’t get out for a long time.” Iyer said.
Iyer was part of RCB’s title-winning team in 2026.
