‘That is the difference between KKR and RCB’ – Gambhir reacts on IPL releases

Former Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir doesn’t share good camaraderie with the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and he once again was visibly upset with the RCB team management for their policy of not backing their players enough after a poor season. The veteran took a sly dig at the Bangalore outfit after they revealed their list of retained and released players ahead of IPL 2021.

Gambhir seemed impressed with his former IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for backing the wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik even after he delivered a below-par performance in the previous edition. Karthik had stepped down as the captain of the Knight Riders in the middle of the tournament and had handed the responsibility of leading the squad to England captain Eoin Morgan.

However, this didn’t reap good results for Karthik on a personal level as there was no significant improvement in his batting. The batsman ended IPL 2020 with just 169 runs across various positions that he batted at during the course of 14 innings at an average of 14.08 and a strike-rate of 126.11.

Gautam Gambhir hails the franchises who didn’t release their main players

While many felt that KKR will release the veteran player ahead of the 2021 edition, they showed faith in Dinesh Karthik and retained him for the upcoming tournament. While lauding the Knight Riders for backing their players, Gautam Gambhir didn’t fail to take a jibe at RCB who had released as many as 10 players.

“Dinesh Karthik was removed from the captaincy, but despite that, if you have retained him, it shows that the franchise is backing you. And because of that your confidence increases, and that is the difference between KKR and RCB,” said Gautam Gambhir on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’

Gambhir further reckoned that he believes in retaining the core of the team and just releasing the extra baggage as it gives confidence to the players and helps them in doing better the next time.

“I am in agreement with all those franchisees who have not released too many players. It shows you have kept confidence in your players. This is called releasing just the excess baggage. So, it is not that surprising. The core is still there, they have not done too many changes,” he concluded.