Nitish Rana paid tribute to Gautam Gambhir on Instagram after Kolkata Knight Riders broke a ten-year drought to win their third IPL title in 2024. Gambhir returned to the KKR dugout ahead of the season, taking on the role of a mentor, after two years with the Lucknow Super Giants. His influence has clearly been enormous, with Rana hailing him. After two titles as KKR captain in 2012 and 2014, this is Gambhir’s first as a mentor of the franchise.

“In this era of Mamba Mentality, we’re soon all going to embrace the GG Mentality too,” captioned Rana on Instagram.

Rana also shared a screenshot of a conversation with Gambhir dating back to November 22, 2023, where Gambhir had spoken about “creating something special” in the season to come.

Rana has not been the only one to credit KKR’s success to Gambhir. Earlier in the season, Sunil Narine had also spoken about how Gambhir had been instrumental in convincing him to open the batting again.

Even owner Shah Rukh Khan offered a special thanks to Gambhir during KKR’s post-IPL 2024 Final celebrations, in a video on the team’s official YouTube Channel.

“My special thanks to GG (Gautam Gambhir),” Shah Rukh said. “I just have one request… we have to make GG dance tonight,” he joked.

Kolkata Knight Riders were dominant during IPL 2024, finishing with the highest Net Run Rate (+1.428) in IPL history. They bowled out the Sunrisers Hyderabad for a paltry 113 in the final on Sunday night, before cruising to victory with nearly half the innings to spare.

KKR’s resurgence upon Gambhir’s arrival has led to rumours circulating on social media tipping him as the favourite to succeed Rahul Dravid as India’s next men’s head coach. BCCI are yet to disclose their final shortlist of candidates.