Rohit, only captain who gave me sleepless nights: Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir is a part of the Star Sports commentary panel for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. During the second Test between India and Australia in Delhi, the former India opener was asked some interesting questions by a fellow commentator. The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain was asked to pick two players that he would have wanted in his KKR squad earlier. He picked two players despite accepting that it was a difficult question.

“It’s a difficult question, but the answer is very simple. If I have to pick two players, I have an easy answer. My first player would be Rohit Sharma, and the second would be Yuvraj Singh. I didn’t need any other player apart from these two. I’m not saying we would be having a perfect team, but we would’ve won more than two titles (if we had these two players),” Gambhir said.

“Rohit and I would open, Robin Uthappa at 3, Suryakumar Yadav at 4, Yuvraj at 5, Yusuf Pathan at 6, and Andre Russell at 7. You can imagine what a team that would have been. We tried our best to get Yuvraj, but that couldn’t happen,” the former Indian opener added.

The former cricketer further added that Rohit Sharma was the only captain who troubled him in the IPL. He also said he did not make plans against no others except the Mumbai Indians (MI) captain. While talking about Yuvraj, he called him India’s greatest white-ball cricketer.

“The only captain who gave me sleepless nights was Rohit Sharma. I didn’t need to make plans for anyone else, nor did I think much about others. Yuvraj, I think, is India’s greatest white-ball cricketer, not just because of his player of the series performance in the World Cup, but because of his vast talent and ability,” said Gambhir.

Gambhir was an integral part of India’s World Cup wins in T20s (2007) and ODIs (2011). The former opener has played more under the captaincy of India’s most successful captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The 41-year-old cricketer also had a brilliant spell in Indian Premier League (IPL). He captained KKR and led them to win the titles in 2012 and 2014.