In the pantheon of Indian great batsmen, one name is often missing – 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-Rohit list 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 prolific players:
– Top Scorer in BOTH the WorldCup Finals which he played in & which India won:
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.
– 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.
– Is the only Captain in the history of IPL to have won 14 matches in a row.
– Is the only player in IPL to win both as captain & coach.
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.
Wish Gambhir and all of team India the very best for the future – as he takes charge as India coach!!! 👏🏻
