India, May 22 -- In his first speech to the players after taking over as the Kolkata Knight Riders mentor, Gautam Gambhir talked about being there on May 26, the date of IPL 2024 final. The KKR players lived up to the challenge two months and a week later. They advanced to the IPL final as the most dominating team of the tournament. After finishing on the top of the points table for the first time in 17 years, KKR hammered Sunrisers Hyderabad, the second-ranked team, by eight wickets in Qualifier 1 to stamp their tickets for the Chennai-bound flight.

Gambhir had talked about team bonding, the importance of representing a reputed franchise like KKR and the equal rights of all players in the setup in his speech.

"We start the season from ...