You are skipper of the defending IPL champions. How have the expectations, body language, mindset and leadership pattern changed for you?The mind is a beast. It settles for nothing less than perfection. In sport, you keep feeding it with excellence and it keeps asking for more. So yes, yeh dil maange more. We intend to play fearless cricket.Kolkata is expecting an encore...That suits my style. By nature, I’m very demanding. I always strive for perfection, though I know it doesn’t exist. KKR fans are justified in expecting a lot from us. Nearly 15,000 people watch our practice sessions and then surround the team bus. Kolkata’s fan following is unmatched and pure.Winning engenders a leadership pattern. Be it Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist or MS Dhoni, a certain school of leadership emerges every time a team wins a trophy. ‘A captain is as good as his team’ was your usual refrain throughout the last season. Will we see a more assertive Gambhir?I don’t have any patterns. If something works, I keep repeating it. If not, I look to innovate. Yes, I do look beyond individuals — I look at the group, I believe in systems, systems that help an individual grow. You look at successful teams in any sport, they all leave legacies. For me, the team is foremost, not the individual. Last year our mantra was — “if you play for the name in front of the shirt, people will remember the name on the back.” This is what defines us the best.Everybody has been talking about your ‘poking out the off-stump’. Have you reflected on it?It was combination of a technical flaw and a mindset thing. The glide outside the off-stump has given me lots of runs, especially in the shorter formats. Without realising, it became my ‘go-to shot’ even in Test cricket. I tried hard to get that discipline in my game to leave a lot of balls, but after sometime the mind would collapse and I’d repeat the same mistake. I tried to tighten it up by playing in the ‘V’ and also letting balls go. I felt good about my batting towards the end of Test series against England and also in the ODIs. I think I was getting there and the progress continued in the side game against Australia.From threatening to equal Bradman’s six consecutive centuries to no century in the last three years, how have you dealt with such extremes?Bradman’s record is history. Today, there is no hiding from that fact that a century hasn’t come my way, which is indeed disappointing. From a team point of view, my hundred would mean we have had a good start. Individually I look beyond 100 — to make it big, really big. As for approach towards batting, it remains the same. Batting continues to be a combination of art and science directed towards using your faculties, with a wooden tool to achieve excellence.In times of distress, people turn to their emotional sounding board. Was that the case with you as well?My support system took a huge beating in the last two to three years. Last November, I lost my (maternal) grandmother which plunged me into darkness. I was extremely close to her. She was my sounding board, friend, anchor...everything. In 2010, Parthasarthy Sharma, whom I was very close to, passed away. I worked a lot with him and my coach, Sanjay Bhardwaj. These losses jolted my support system. I take solace from the fact that my core group is still with me: parents, wife, mama, family and friends.Being away from the team, isn’t it natural to get restless? Are you hungrier now?The day the hunger dies, I will walk away. I am trying to control my training, fitness and approach and I am sure I will be back soon.Different people resort to different means to get themselves motivated. What do you tell yourself?I just keep things simple. Practise hard, hit the gym regularly, go for long runs and, most importantly, not feel bitter about life. Yes, I am not in the team but I don’t want to brood over it every day. Instead, I enjoyed watching my team beat Australia 4-0; I enjoyed Vijay and Shikhar’s batting; I enjoyed the skills of our bowlers. So it is not that I’m in a dark hole. It is sport, where you will be pushed to a corner but you have to fight back.When sportsmen stay out of the limelight, they return as better individuals. Has the time away from the team given you a chance to think how much people will remember Gambhir, the person? You have been talking about social issues...Crime against women and corruption in the system really bother me, and that is why I took them up on Twitter and other platforms. I’m planning something more concrete, but I don’t want to reveal it now.How does it feel when a state teammate replaces you at the same position? What was your message to Shikhar? It requires large heartedness to help settle the nerves of a debutant.This is exactly what I mean when I say we need to look beyond individuals in a team sport. Shikhar’s brilliant knock was not just meant for him. It was equally important to Indian cricket, its system and the fans. Hopefully, after our recent losses, we will be able to win back some fans and restore their pride. My message to Shikhar was that he must be himself and make it count.Do you go back to your best performances, a sort of archival therapy, which works for many players?Archival therapy or feel-good factor is not for me. What I’ve done is history. I could be playing as many strokes now as I did five years back. But my role in the Indian team was different back then. Now, it is something else. I may look at videos for technical comparisons but, that apart, I like living in the moment.When you played the ODIs, Viru was out. And when Viru was playing the Tests, you were out. You two paired up in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. How badly you want the partnership again, wearing the India jersey?It is not as dramatic as you are making it to be. Yes, our combination worked and we are proud of it, but importantly we helped the team. Viru and Gauti are part of a team and not ‘the’ team. The so-called separation is disappointing but who knows with a bit of work we may be together again.Any changes in your life after marriage?The temperature in my room’s air-conditioner used to be at 16 degrees centigrade. Natasha can’t handle that much cold so it has gone up to 24-25! I’ve started talking on fashion, clothes, movies and a lot more. I never tried Thai and Japanese food but it is happening now. Natasha has been the most wonderful addition to me and my family. The writer works for ESPN-Star Sports

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