Video Editor: Vishal Kumar
Ahead of his return to his first franchise, Delhi Daredevils (DD), Gautam Gambhir revisited his childhood memories in his hometown Delhi. After spending seven long years with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and winning two titles for them, the batsman will be leading Delhi Daredevils in the upcoming eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Standing outside his alma mater Modern School, Barakhamba Road in Delhi, Gambhir confessed never to have bunked classes. But that was only when he was in school, which wasn’t too often, given the long hours he had to put into his cricket training.
On the sidelines of Star Sports’ special episode with Gautam Gambhir Dil Dilli, the Delhi batsman said:
I’ve never bunked. I’ve hardly gone to school but whenever I went I made sure to attend all the classes because you miss a lot. I was so busy because of cricket that I didn’t get the time to attend school regularly. So whenever I did go to school, I attended every single class and it was great fun.
But if you think studies was the only motive to Gautam attending classes, then you’re wrong! Because the cricketer also revealed that the gender ratio in his class was also a bit of a motivating factor for him to attend class.
In Class 11 and 12, we had 5 boys and 55 girls in the class. That was another reason you wouldn’t bunk.Gautam Gambhir
Gambhir also confessed that a big reason for him parting ways with KKR was the lack of a challenge. And now that he’s back ‘home’, the 36-year-old is all for giving Delhi Daredevils a chance at winning their maiden IPL title.
A sportsman’s life is all about challenges. I always wanted a new challenge. One thing I could achieve with KKR is win the Champions League and that tournament is no longer there. So there was nothing else to achieve. We won the IPL twice, maybe we could now win it thrice, or four times. There wasn’t too much else left to achieve.
“Lot of people can say a lot of things but I had unfinished business with Delhi. So I always thought that the kind of squad Delhi had over the past 10 years, the team deserved much more than what they achieved. So I thought that if I could help them achieve that, it will be great fun as well”, said Gambhir.
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