Wishing Gautam Gambhir a happy 42nd birthday!!!
In the pantheon of Indian great batsmen, one name is often missing. The name of Gautam Gambhir. While real connoisseurs of the game always rate him extremely high, often times in popular mention of the Sachin-Sehwag-Dravid-Ganguly-Laxman-Dhoni-Kohli group of greats, Gambhir gets left out…
So, here’s a list of Gautam Gambhir’s achievements which make him one of the India’s more impactful players:
– Top Scorer in BOTH the WorldCup Finals India has won for the past 15 yrs:
Scored 97 in the 2011 ODI World Cup Final
Scored 75 in the 2007 T20 World Cup Final.
– Highest run getter for India in the 2007 T20 World Cup.
– Second highest run getter for India in 2011 ODI World Cup, scoring 4 half centuries – all against top rated teams – Australia, Sri Lanka, England, South Africa.
– First Indian batsman to be ranked #1 in both Tests & T20s.
– Was ICC Test Player of the year 2009.
– Was ranked #1 batman in Test Cricket in 2009, at a time when legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Jacques Kallis & Ricky Ponting were at their peak.
– Is the only Indian batsman to score 5 centuries in 5 consecutive Test matches. Only Don Bradman has scored 6 consecutive centuries.
– Became the 2nd batsman in the history of Cricket to score 11 consecutive 50+ scores. Before Gambhir, only sir Viv Richards had achieved this feat.
– Played a marathon knock against New Zealand at Napier, scoring 137 while batting for a staggering 643 minutes to save the test. This knock helped India in successfully drawing the Test & India winning a Test Series in New Zealand after 41 yrs.
– The Gambhir – Sehwag pair is one the most successful opening pairs for India. Together they’ve scored 4412 runs in 87 innings at an average of 52.52.
– Has a 100% winning ratio as a Captain. India won all 6 matches where he captained. India whitewashed New Zealand 5-0 in ODIs where Gambhir lead from the front scoring 2 centuries & winning Man of the Series.
– His highest score in ODIs is 150 not out. India were chasing 316 runs & India lost 2 wickets for 23 runs. India went on to win the match by 7 wickets. Gambhir won the Man of the Match award but he gave it to Virat Kohli who had scored his maiden century in that match.
– Is the only Captain in the history of IPL to have won 14 matches in a row.
– Was top Indian run getter in IPL thrice – 2008 for Delhi Daredevils, 2012 for KKR, 2017 for KKR. Only other person to do this is Kohli.
Hope one day Gambhir gets the right recognition he deserves coz Gautam Gambhir is, without doubt, one of the most underrated & under-celebrated of Indian cricketers…
