'Gambhir felt conflicts would bring the best out of him': Ex-cricketer Atul Wassan

Gautam Gambhir (Pic: PTI)

Days after Kolkata Knight Riders mentor Gautam Gambhir made headlines for criticising AB de Villiers and Kevin Pietersen, former cricketer Atul Wassan, said if the 42-year-old 'could just tone down a bit then he's got a lot of talent'.

Earlier, De Villiers and Pietersen slammed Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya for displaying a poor performance in the ongoing IPL 2024. Countering it in an interview Gambhir said, "De Villiers and Pietersen's records as captain are also not impressive."

Speaking to ANI, Wassan said Gambhir is a great player and achieved many things in his cricketing career. He added the KKR mentor used to feel conflicts would bring the best out of him and it also worked for the left-handed batter.

"Gautam Gambhir is my junior and he is a great player and achieved many things in his career. When Gambhir used to play, he used to feel that such conflicts, would bring the best out of him and it worked for him. Gambhir used to do much better when he used to fight with someone. If he could just tone down a bit then he's got a lot of talent. He can work well and he is a great mentor but this conflict thing becomes the team's dogma attitude he is with," Wassan said.

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The 56-year-old added that even he is not a big fan of where the captain gets all the credits when a team does well and is also criticized for the team's failure.

"I am also a not big fan of putting all the accolades to the captain and all the failures on the captain's head. So, it's his point of view whether he liked the captaincy of Ab de Villiers or not. You can say Sachin was not a good captain and he will agree with this. Criticizing the ex-player captaincy just to replicate another captain who is not doing well is not right then you're just using past players as a benchmark and giving a perspective against the new captain," he added.

The Mumbai-based franchise stands at the bottom of the IPL 2024 standings with eight points. Hardik Pandya's side displayed a sloppy performance in the 17th season of the tournament and won just four games after playing 13 matches. MI was also the first franchise in IPL 2024 to get knocked out of the playoffs.

"I don't think he has achieved anything from a team's point of view, Hardik Pandya is still an IPL-winning captain. So you should only compare oranges to oranges. Not apple to oranges," Gambhir added in his interview with a media outlet.

Under Gambhir's mentorship, KKR won 9 of 13 matches, and stand at the top of the IPL 2024 standings with 19 points and have a net run rate of +1.428. The Kolkata-based franchise only lost three matches in the 17th season which came against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Rajasthan Royals (RR), and Punjab Kings (PBKS).

In their upcoming match, KKR will take on Rajasthan Royals on Sunday at the Assam Cricket Association Stadium in Guwahati.

(With agency inputs)