Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 edition, Gautam Gambhir returned to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) but this time as a mentor.

Notably, Gambhir led KKR to two IPL titles in 2012 and 2014. While it remains to be seen if KKR can clinch their third title under his guidance this season, the franchise has performed exceptionally well so far.

The Knight Riders became the first team to qualify for the IPL 2024 playoffs last week, having won nine of their 12 league matches.

Despite brining so much laurels for KKR over the years, Gautam Gambhir has a regret and it is not identifying Suryakumar Yadav's potential or his best batting position when the latter was part of the Kolkata-based franchise.

Suryakumar had started his IPL career back in 2012, where he played only one match for Mumbai Indians, before being released by the five-time champions a year later. In 2014, he was signed by KKR and won the title in his maiden season at the franchise. Surya played for KKR till 2017 and amassed 608 runs in 54 matches, but most of those scores came while batting in the lower middle-order.

“A leader's role is to identify the best potential and show it to the world. If there is one regret I have in my seven years of captaincy is that me and as a team never managed to use Suryakumar Yadav to the best of his potential. And the reason was down to combinations. You can only play one player at No. 3. And as a leader, you have to think about the other 10 players in the XI as well. He would have been way more effective at No. 3, but was equally good at No. 7,” Gambhir said while speaking to Sportskeeda.

Gambhir also hailed Suryakumar as a team player, explaining why he was appointed as the KKR vice-captain in 2015.

“He was also a team man. Anyone can be a good player, but being a team man is a difficult task. Whether you play him at No. 6 or 7 or bench him, he was always smiling and always ready to perform for the team. That is why we appointed him as the vice-captain,” he added.

After taking the retirement from IPL in 2018, Gambhir Gambhir decided to join the coaching staff. He was roped in by Lucknow Super Giants as team mentor in 2022. He worked with LSG for the first two seasons before rejoining KKR.