England’s wicketkeeper-batter Phil Salt has credited Gautam Gambhir for his success in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Under Gambhir's mentorship, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the IPL 2024 and broke the 10-year trophy drought. Since then, Gambhir has left his role at KKR and joined the Indian national set-up as head coach.
"Brilliant experience doesn't get any better than you know, coming in and winning the IPL first and foremost. I think GG (Gambhir) is no stranger to Indian cricket fans and cricket fans around the world. He's, you know, his playing record speaks for itself," Salt was quoted as saying by ANI during the CEAT Awards, where he was named Men's T20I Batter of the Year.
"What a competitor. I could really relate to him from that point of view. He's always looking for those one percent what's going to get the individual to be better and what's going to get the team over the line. So I loved working for him. You know one word would be a competitor.”
The England opener featured in 12 games for KKR and smashed 435 runs at an average of 39.54 and a strike rate of 182. Recalling a conversation he had with Gambhir during a training session, Salt said, "I think the main bit of advice that I took from GG was to take the game deep, especially here in India.
“You know, from the moment I got off the first training session, he sat me down, he said, I know you're going to score runs for us, but I want you to score the majority of your runs between overs 10 and 20.
"Even if you know it can be a little bit slow to start with, I want you to hang in there and make sure you're there from overs ten onwards and get the big overs because you can score so quickly, and I think you know of all the conversations I had, I think that's the best bit of you know coaching I had.”
If you’ve not downloaded Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out — big time. Play Fantasy on Cricket.com NOW! Download the App here.