Former Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir has named the one cicketer he's interested in watching for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. The 13th season of the cash-rich league begins on September 19 in the United Arab Emirates.
Gambhir, who has guided Kolkata Knight Riders to two IPL titles during his time at the franchise, has said that he would want to watch KL Rahul in IPL 2020.
Rahul, who is one of the mainstays in the Indian team in the limited-overs format, will be playing his first IPL season as captain. The Karnataka batsman will lead Kings XI Punjab.
While Rahul has already made his name as one of the most explosive Indian batsmen in the shortest format of the game, the plyer has remained untested as the captain of the side. Gambhir has said that many promising players have been "pulled down" by the pressures of captaincy, and would see how Rahul embraces the new role.
“I would want to genuinely watch what KL Rahul does in this IPL. Because according to me KL Rahul is a fantastic T20 cricketer, probably not Test cricket, but definitely T20 and white-ball cricketer,” Gambhir said on Star Sports' Cricket Connected.
“This time he has got the captaincy. We will have to see if he relishes the captaincy because there have been a lot of promising players who have relished captaincy and there have been many other promising players who have been pulled down by the pressures of captaincy."
Gambhir began his IPL career with home side Delhi Daredevils, where he played under the captaincy of Virender Sehwag. However, he was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of the 2011 edition of the tournament and was named captain straightaway.
He eventually led the Kolkata franchise to its first IPL title in 2012, and captained the side to another tournament victory two years later.
