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A few years later, after winning the IPL title with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2024, former KKR opener Phil Salt talked about Gautam Gambhir’s role in shaping the team for a winning season.
Salt revealed that promoting Salt as well as Sunil Narine as opening batsman was Gautam Gambhir’s masterplan. The opening pair of Phil Salt and Sunil Narine rejuvenated the batting prowess, helping the Knight Riders have one of their most impressive seasons in IPL history.
It was Gautam Gambhir’s idea to play Sunil Narine as an opener.
He scored full points from 9 out of 12 completed matches in the group stage of the IPL 2024 season. In Qualifier 1 and the season final, KKR defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad to win their third title. Sunil Narine, who played as an opening batsman that season, finished as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Phil Salt claims that using Narine as an opening batsman was entirely Gautam Gambhir’s idea, which may be a hit-and-miss example. Gambhir himself knew which path the team could take with Narayan as the opener.
Sunil Narine was not prepared for the proposed batting position
The Caribbean legend, before IPL 2024, was mostly known for his spin bowling and was not convinced by the idea of Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir was the mentor of KKR. Since he had strong faith in his plans, he never felt tired talking to Spinner.
Phil Salt says that Gautam Gambhir, now the head coach of the Indian national cricket team, must have negotiated for hours to convince Sunil Narine to play him as an opening batsman. Narine eventually agreed to play the newly given role, which turned out to be a blockbuster move.
Sunil Narine became MVP after a long journey: Sunil Narine
At the end of the season, there was a very slight difference between Phil Salt’s batting numbers and Sunil Narine’s batting figures.
While Salt scored 435 runs at a strike rate of 182, Narine scored an incredible 488 runs at a strike rate of almost 181. Moreover, with so many runs off the blade, Narine also took 17 wickets with the ball at an economy of 6.69. Without any doubt, he was the MVP of IPL 2024.
Phil Salt said in an interview with the Super Over Podcast, “When I was with KKR and opened the batting with Sunil Narine throughout the season, it was Gambhir’s plan and he had the right idea. And he made absolutely sure that everyone knew which way we were going and that the partnership would not succeed every time. But when it does, we win.”
“Gambhir must have been sitting in Sunny (Narayan)’s room for hours, trying to convince him to open the room because at first Sunny didn’t want to do it. But he got the idea and he went on to become the MVP that year. The distance between Narine and me in the MVP race, and we were ranked 1 and 2 in the middle competition, was similar to the distance of 82 between MS Dhoni and me,” he added.