For whom can Gambhir sacrifice his life?
Former Team India opener Gautam Gambhir has always been known as an aggressive, combative and sharp player. Not only as a player, but also as a human being, he is of the same type. He often remains in the headlines due to his passionate statements. He was like this during his career also, used to give similar statements during commentary and now as the coach of Team India, he has not changed. Therefore, it would not be surprising if Gambhir talks about sacrificing his life for a player and he had also said so.
Gautam Gambhir, an aggressive left-handed Indian batsman from Delhi, turned 44 on October 14. Gautam Gambhir, living in Old Rajinder Nagar, Delhi, started his cricket playing career from Roshanara Club and soon he made a place in Delhi’s Ranji Trophy team. After strong performance in both formats, he made his ODI debut for Team India in 2003 and Test debut in 2004.
For whom can Gambhir sacrifice his life?
Gautam Gambhir’s career has been full of ups and downs since coming to Team India and at such a time, he needed a reassurance that would bring back his confidence. This happened to him in 2008, when the Australian team toured India for the Test series. This was the time when Gambhir had not scored a century in Test for about two and a half years and no big score was coming from his bat. Despite this, he got a place for this Test series and then he got to hear those words which proved important in his comeback. He got this trust from former captain and veteran spinner Anil Kumble.
Gautam Gambhir had revealed this in an interview after his retirement from international cricket in 2018. Gambhir had told that before the Test series, he was busy having dinner with Virender Sehwag one evening. Gambhir said, “At the same time, Anil Kumble passed by and said that both of you will open in the entire series, even if you are out on 0 in 8 consecutive innings.” This confidence of Kumble won his heart. Gambhir further said, “I had never heard such things before. So if I ever have to give my life for someone, it would be Anil Kumble.”
One trust changed career
After the trust he got from Kumble, Gambhir scored a century and a double century in that series. From here his Test career changed tremendously. Within the next one and a half years, Gambhir scored 6 more centuries in Test cricket, one of which came against New Zealand in Napier. In this test, Gambhir faced 436 balls while batting for 643 minutes in the second innings and played a big role in getting the test drawn by scoring 137 runs. After this he also scored a century in Wellington and that test was also a draw. With its help, Team India won that series 1-0.
Gambhir’s international career
Talking about Gambhir’s career, the veteran batsman, who made his ODI debut in 2003, scored 5238 runs in 147 matches at an average of 39.68, which included 11 centuries and 34 half-centuries. Obviously, the best innings of his career came in the final of the World Cup 2007, where he scored 97 runs. In 58 test matches, Gambhir scored 4154 runs with the help of 9 centuries and 22 half-centuries and the average was 41.95. Gambhir, who proved to be a big role in Team India winning the first T20 World Cup, played 37 matches in this format and scored 932 runs, which included 7 half-centuries including an innings of 75 runs against Pakistan in the final.