Yusuf Pathan, throughout the years, has made a name for being a strong hitter of the ball. Not only in domestic cricket but also international cricket, he ripped apart the opposition bowling attacks with his aggressive batting. The Indian Premier League was no different either as he played for three different teams throughout 12 years.
The Baroda cricketer featured for the Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders, and the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. Instead, he has won the IPL trophy as many as three times, once with the Royals and twice with the Knight Riders.
And appropriately, he picked Shane Warne and Gautam Gambhir as his favorite captains in the IPL while interacting with CricTracker.
The Royals were the ones who won the IPL in its inaugural season, and Yusuf Pathan, who had made his international debut in the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup, had played a crucial role in it. While discussing Warne’s captaincy, Yusuf heaped praises on the Australian’s way of leading the team. He remembered the way he used to encourage the players.
However, Yusuf also regretted the fact that he couldn’t play with Warne beyond the third IPL edition as the KKR snaffled him in the auction. Yusuf shared a fascinating memory with the former Australian cricketer, Shane Warne used to plan to get the opposition batsmen out before the match and then used to dismiss exactly the same way in the middle.
Gautam Gambhir was the one who changed the KKR’s fortunes with his captaincy and led the team to two titles in 2012 and 2014. And it goes without saying that Yusuf Pathan was once again a vital cog of the team for the period he played with the franchise. Speaking about Gambhir’s captaincy, he revealed that the former India cricketer is very much emotional and used to care a lot about his teammates even when they were not playing.