"He told me to have duck for dinner" - When Gautam Gambhir shared a hilarious duck tale from IPL 2014

Current Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir had a disastrous start to his Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 campaign. Leading the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), he was dismissed without scoring in the first three matches. Amazingly, he could see the lighter side of life despite the fact that things were not going his way at the start of KKR's IPL 2014 campaign.

Speaking on a podcast on news agency ANI in December 2023, Gambhir shared a hilarious story around his three consecutive ducks in IPL 2014. He revealed how former India left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra told him to have duck for dinner to avoid getting out without scoring for a fourth time in a row.

"Four or five guys from Delhi were sitting together at the dinner table. Ashish Nehra ordered a duck. He told me to have the duck for dinner; otherwise, I might get another duck in the next match. I just tasted it. I scored one run in that match, and Nehra even messaged me after that," the former India opener recalled in the podcast.

The former KKR skipper also thanked team co-owner Shah Rukh Khan for backing him even when he himself felt that he should drop himself from the playing XI. Opening up on his interaction with the Bollywood superstar, he said:

"2014 in Abu Dhabi, I started the IPL with three ducks in a row. I got a one in the fourth game. We had lost four out of our first five matches. We were coming back to Ritz Carlton after we lost the game. He was standing in the lobby. He took me on the side and asked what was happening. I said I was thinking of dropping myself. He told me, 'till you are there and you want to be there, you are not dropping yourself.'"

KKR engineered a stunning turnaround after a poor start in IPL 2014 and went on to win the T20 league for the second time. Incidentally, Gambhir was the mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders when the franchise won the title for the third time in 2024.

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Gautam Gambhir's batting stats in IPL 2014

While Gambhir made a horror start to IPL 2014, he ended the tournament with decent numbers. The left-handed batter scored 335 runs in 16 matches at an average of 22.33 and a strike rate of 114.33, with three half-centuries.

The then KKR skipper scored 54 off 34 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Ahmedabad, 69 off 56 against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Delhi and 63* off 45 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Cuttack. He was out for 23 off 17 in the high-scoring final against Punjab Kings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.