'Guru' Gambhir using his 'KKR template' to give second wind to KL Rahul's captaincy ambitions

Gautam Gambhir is a politician by choice but a cricketer at heart whose brain never stops ticking when it comes to conceptualising, planning and execution. In his playing days, Gambhir perhaps was the best captain India never had but he showed his leadership acumen when KKR won two titles during his time with the franchise.

Those were the days when Gambhir had absolute control over the narrative as he could be present right there in the thick of things and pull a string or two to get things in order. For a 'mentor' (chief strategist of Lucknow Super Giants), Gambhir can only hope that skipper KL Rahul is 100 percent sincere in executing the plans as he waits in anticipation in the dug-out.

Before the start of the tournament, in an interview to PTI, Gambhir had said: "I would want KL Rahul the batter, who also captains than the other way round." Rahul is now the second highest run-getter in the IPL with two hundreds under his belt. Above everything else, he is looking more sorted as a captain than the time when he led India a few months back.

So did 'Guru Gambhir' knowingly or unknowingly helped Rahul tap his latent leadership qualities? Did Gambhir 2.0 have again made Rahul 2.0 a potent leadership candidate for the national job in near future? Well, the jury is still out as Rahul would be keen to do better than what he did in his two years for Punjab Kings. But may be, there are indications that Gambhir is trying to mirror image his KKR template of 2012-14.

Those who have watched Gambhir closely in Delhi cricket know that he can be bullish when he wants something and hence when it came to Rahul being made the captain, the 'mentor' had no other names in mind and didn't even consider his results setbacks. Gambhir likes