Gautam Gambhir comes from a very affluent family, was born with a golden spoon: Aakash Chopra

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Gautam Gambhir was extremely hardworking despite coming from a very affluent family, his former India and Delhi teammate Aakash Chopra has revealed. Chopra made the revelation after he was asked about the younger days of Gambhir on a YouTube podcast.

Akash Chopra recalled the hunger of Gautam Gambhir to perform despite having all the luxuries- in life after being born with a golden spoon. He said Gambhir always had his heart at the right place, and toiled hard on the ground all day.

"He's a good hearted guy, comes from a very affluent family. For that kid to have that kind of passion... he would be at the ground the whole day. He was born with a golden spoon, not even silver, very rich and wealthy. It's a different journey, basically like Abhinav Bindra. Gautam has the heart at the right place," Aakash Chopra said in an interview with YouTuber Raj Shamani.

'Gambhir's wasn't a friend'

The cricketer-turned-commentator also recalled that he had a competitive relation with Gambhir when playing for Delhi as they both were making their bids for the opening slot. He said the competition in the Delhi team was so high that Virender Sehwag would bat at four, and one between Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan would get a place in the playing eleven.

"We are competitors because we were fighting for one place. Our team was very good. When we were playing, only one of Kohli and Dhawan got the chance to play. The team was like that. In fact, there was no place for even Viru to open the batting. Viru batted four so that we can accommodate one of Shikhar and Virat at 3," recalled Aakash Chopra in the podcast.

"We were competitors to begin with. He wasn't a friend, to be honest. (But he was a) very passionate guy, very hard working, and very serious about his craft. And he scored a lot of runs. But he always wore his heart on his sleeve, was extremely passionate, and could short-fuse very quickly in terms of temperament," he added.

Gambhir was recently appointed the head coach of the senior India men's Indian cricket team. He is currently in Chennai where India would be playing their first Test match under his watch against Bangladesh from September 19.