Gautam Gambhir
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From the archives of "India Today", April 17, 2009
Sharda Ugra
Michael Slater calls him the “Pocket Rocket” and on most days, Gambhir, bats like his boots are on fire but the left-hander from Delhi has always moved to an inner music.
His batting may look cavalier but his numbers now are substantial, heavyweight. Since the start of the T20 World Cup in September 2007, he has scored 3,567 runs for India with nine centuries (1,587@69 in Tests, 1,652@42.35 in ODIs and 328 @29.8 in T20s), four in Tests and five in ODIs, and 21 fifties. He won five Man of the Match awards and was Man of the Series in New Zealand. It is as if he is making up for lost time in an international career that began as early as 2003 but had only consisted of a series of false starts until late 2007. This run of form should give him a sense of security and a feeling of finally belonging to that elite dressing room. Far from it. “I don’t want to think of ‘belonging’ because I still have a long way to go. I tend to put pressure on myself and feel that every time I have to bat, it has to count.” India coach Gary Kirsten once told him, “never flirt with your form”, so Gambhir, whom opening partner Virender Sehwag has called the next great Indian opener after Sunil Gavaskar, is trying to stay faithful to what he has learnt. The prime lesson is that in cricket, runs and not words matter. The overwhelming argument of numbers is the batsman’s only truth. Gambhir’s runs in domestic cricket—9,100-plus runs and 29 centuries—have been a crowbar that forced the door open again. Over the course of 18 months, he has countered all criticism with the contrary proof of runs. Only a flashy 30s and 40s kind of player? This season he has scored five centuries in eight Tests @84 and one century and four fifties in 14 ODIs @45. Can only play weak opposition? Since September 2007, Gambhir averages above 45 against Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Can only play at home? He has more centuries (six) away than at home (three), @ 47.73 in all forms of the game. The defence rests and so, you have to say, should the prosecution. Outside the Indian team in the 2005 and 2006 period, Gambhir churned out the runs for Delhi and also worked in the nets with his coach Sanjay Bharadwaj. He tied a golf ball to a necktie in order to align his centre of gravity more securely. This to stop himself from falling over and playing across his front pad to balls coming into him. Bharadwaj’s calculation of how long it took is not in hours or days but in “hundreds”—the number of times the correct stroke was repeated. He says, “Gautam has always faced struggles ever since he was an under-14 batsman but he’s never given up.” When he got back to the team in England, former selector Sanjay Jagdale noticed a “different Gambhir, more compact, with every sign that he could do justice to his talent”.
The more justice he’s done, the more secure Gambhir has become and it has fed into his game. He says security has made him more certain about his mental preparation, and his physical preparation, says Bharadwaj, has remained a constant. Returning home by 5 a.m. the night after winning a car in a T20 international, Gambhir was in the nets at 2 p.m. The day after returning from New Zealand, he went to the gym.
His is one of the first names to be put down on an Indian XI in all forms of the game. He makes the switch between formats by sticking to his basic game plan: be positive, look to score. Test cricket, he says reflexively, is “actual cricket”, where the preparation needed is more intense. “In T20 you play with freedom and improvise a lot more, but that’s it.”
The Gambhir-Sehwag partnership now promises India both entertainment and folklore. Sehwag thinks of himself as a makeshift opener and Gambhir says he became an opener only because he hated waiting to bat. Their reputation is already welltravelled as is Gambhir’s for his sometimes fiery nature. During the 2007-2008 Ranji final, he fought to have his team transported in an airconditioned bus and gave a stirring pre-game speech. During the match, Gambhir almost scraped the skin right off one hand while fielding and then, ignoring the queasy faces in the dressing room, pulled on his gloves, to front the second innings chase that won the title for Delhi after 16 years.
He’s still competitive but wants to temper that temper. A one-Test ban when in form for elbowing Shane Watson actually worked better than the pearls tied around his neck by his mother worried about her otherwise good-natured son’s incendiary streak. Gambhir said, “It was irresponsible. I let my team down, and we had worked so hard... had we not won the series, I would put the blame on myself.” It may seem like Gambhir takes everything about his cricket personally but India has no complaints. After all, it is the reason for this astonishing coming of age.
Achievements
IPL
From: April 26, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
Gautam Gambhir in IPL
