Gautam Gambhir Biography

Gautam Gambhir Indian Batsman

About Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir is a young left-handed opening batsman in the Indian cricket team known for his blazing batting style and a uniquely balanced yet aggressive approach to the game. Born on the 14th of October 1981 in Delhi, Gautam Gambhir made an impact in the domestic cricketing arena at quite an early age. He was taken in at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore in 2000.

Scoring runs at an average of more than 50 in domestic cricket, the turning point came for this young lad when he scored successive double centuries in 2002 while representing Delhi and Board Presidents’ XI against Zimbabweans touring in India. The outstanding performance made him the fourth Indian batsman ever to score a double century against visitors and showcased his potential as a cricketer. The previous three Indian batsmen to achieve the feat include Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sachin Tendulkar, all cricketing legends in their own right.

After a poor show put up by Indian cricketers in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, several senior cricketers were rested which paved the way for his eventual entry to the Indian ODI squad for TVS Cup held in Dhaka later that year. Gautam Gambhir scored 71 runs in the third ODI itself and received Man of the Match award. His maiden ODI century was however, came after two years when he scored a blazing 103 off 97 balls against Sri Lanka in 2005.

Gautam Gambhir debuted his Test career in the fourth and last Test match against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy held in 2004. The show turned out to be a damp squib in the first Test but in his second Test against South Africa he contributed an important 96 runs to his side. His maiden Test century came against Bangladesh in 2004. Even after making his presence felt in the international cricketing arena, Gautam Gambhir’s form has been on and off with a few streaks of brilliance to his credit in the form of excellent batting efforts.

In 2007 Cricket World Cup as well, he was not in the squad because the selectors opted to go in with Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Saurav Ganguly at the top of Indian batting order. India failed miserably in the 2007 Cricket World Cup and was eliminated in the very first stage after a regrettable loss to Bangladesh, which paved the way for his comeback in the Indian ODI squad for tour to Bangladesh. Living upto the expectations of selectors and Indian cricket fans, he scored his second century on the tour making his way to the team for India’s tour to Ireland in 2007. Continuing his good form, Gautam Gambhir came up with an excellent unbeaten knock of 80 runs against Ireland, which once again proved his worth as an international cricketer.

Gautam Gambhir’s biggest problem so far has been an inability to convert excellent start-ups of 20s and 30s into big scores which has time and again put a question mark on his place in the Indian cricket team for both Test and ODI formats of the game.

Gautam Gambhir displayed exceptional batting prowess in the ICC Twenty20 World Cricket, and scored a couple of half-centuries against New Zealand and England in September 2007. After failing in a few matches, he pitched in with a blazing 75-run knock in just 54 balls in the finals against Pakistan and India went ahead to win the cliffhanger and bag the inaugural Twenty20 trophy. Later, he also played in the seven-match series against Australia but failed to impress with single-digit scores in the first three ODIs after which he was asked to sit out of the series.

Opening the Indian innings in the sole Twenty20 match against Australia on October 20, 2007, Gautam Gambhir let his aggressive side come to the fore and helped put Australia in a tight spot with a cracking 63 run-knock of 52 balls. Indian won the match by as many as 7 wickets and he was selected Man of the Match, once again showcasing his potential as a glorious Indian opener.

Yet, to all expectations, Gautam Gambhir is an Indian opener with immense unexplored potential, which, if exploited properly, could take India off a dreamy flight to new cricketing horizons.