Gautam Gambhir explains why he smiled less than he should have

After years of struggle, it was Gautam Gambhir who had made Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) co-owner Shah Rukh Khan smile by leading the side to win two Indian Premier League (IPL) titles in three years. And after the Delhi cricketer announced his retirement from all forms of cricket recently, his former franchise colleague Shah Rukh gave him an advice while thanking him and it was about smiling a bit more than he generally does.

The 37-year-old who is playing his final cricket match at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground at the moment against Andhra in Ranji Trophy concurred to the actor’s view and said he believed that he could have smiled more often than he did. The cricketer, who will have the prefix ‘former’ attached to his professional identity the moment the game at Kotla concludes, also gave the reason of him smiling less and remaining ‘Gambhir’ during an interview.

@GautamGambhir Thank u for the love & leadership my Captain.U r a special man and may Allah always keep & happy…& u should smile a bit more

— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) December 4, 2018

I had to fight for every inch in my career

“I had to fight for every inch in my career since I was a 12-year-old boy and till date. Nothing came easy to me. So that is what made me, what you can call a street-fighter. You don’t take things lightly. There were so many times people said I don’t smile on the field but I couldn’t afford to smile and couldn’t let my guard down. I couldn’t relax on the cricket field,” Gambhir, who made his international debut in 2003 and played last for Indian in 2016, in a Test match against England at home told CricketNext.

“Sitting here right now, one thing I could have done was let my guard down a little bit, enjoyed a little bit, smiled a little bit but all that passion to win took over me. All the confrontations that I have had on the field, it was not personal but it was for my team and a winning a game of cricket for them,” he further said.

Besides winning two IPL titles, Gambhir has also led the national side in six games in 2010-11 and won all of them. His captaincy stint in the IPL, however, did not end well as he was out of captaincy and even the playing XI mid-way into the 2018 edition of the tournament after returning to his own team Delhi Capitals (formerly Daredevils).

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