Veteran off-spinner Sunil Narine has given the credit to Gautam Gambhir for letting him open the innings for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The veteran started opening the batting from the 2017 edition of the T20 tournament and did well too. Notably, Narine made his debut for the Knight Riders way back in 2012 and it took five seasons for them to identify his skill as a batter.

In 148 IPL matches so far, Narine has scored 1025 runs which came at an average of 14.86 and a strike rate of 162.7 as well with four half-centuries too. Narine has also said that after he started performing well for the KKR in the top order, he started gaining more confidence too as well.

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“Gautam Gambhir asked me to open. He wanted me to get the team off to a fast start, it didn’t matter if I lost my wicket early. Nobody could plan too much for me as I was still new to the role, opposition didn’t take me that seriously, and I went from strength to strength. The more I performed well, the more confidence KKR had in me and gave me that encouragement,” Sunil Narine was quoted as saying in Cricket Monthly.

However, Sunil Narine has also opened the batting for the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League (BBL) as well. Recently, he contributed with the bat with decent performances for Surrey while playing in the 2022 edition of the T20 Blast as well.

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In 419 T20 matches, Sunil Narine has scored 3196 runs which came at an average and strike rate of 15.36 and 148.23 respectively as well, with 13 half-centuries also. He has also claimed 452 T20 wickets with 12 four-wicket hauls and one five-wicket haul.