Kolkata: Rewind back to April 2, 2011. India were playing their second World Cup final in eight years in front of a packed crowd at the Wankhede and the entire nation had their hopes pinned on the team to bring home the title after it had a disastrous outing in the same tournament four years back.
Restricting Sri Lanka to a decent 274/6, India didn’t get to the best of starts as they lost their in-form openers-Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar early on. In walked a man who was tailor-made to bat in situations like these and silently did his job and helped the team achieve the dream, that had eluded them for the past 28 years. History was made, awards were distributed and one of India’s unsung heroes-Gautam Gambhir had done the nation proud.
However this wasn’t the first time this had happened. It was Gambhir’s belligerent 75 that took India to a decent 157/5 batting first against Pakistan in the inaugural World T20 final. As it turned out to be, India emerged as the eventual champions and Gambhir’s knock was just enough for the fans to reinstate their faith in the Indian team, which had crashed out of the World Cup the same year.
Gambhir all throughout his career has played somewhat of a similar role for the teams he has represented. He has been one of India’s most consistent performers across formats for all the years he has played for the team and the stability he used to provide right at the top is second to none in modern day cricket.
The Delhi southpaw is the only Indian and in the history of Test cricket to score hundreds in five consecutive matches and he also tops the list of Indians to have scored more than 300 runs in four consecutive Test series.
Well, things doesn’t end here. He was the highest run scorer for India in ODI’s in the year 2008. He also had the most number of centuries by an Indian in that very year before being awarded with the ICC Test player of the year in 2009.
Not only is he rock solid with the bat, the Delhi southpaw also was spot on with his captaincy. He took over the reins of the IPL franchise-Kolkata Knight Riders and took the teams to newer heights, leading them to the title on two different occasions. Under his leadership, the team which always used to languish at the bottom of the table turned out to be one of the formidable forces in the IPL. This man has proved himself to be a success in almost everything he did and still does in the cricket field.
Gambhir was also responsible for nurturing several young talents like West Indian Sunil Narine who emerged to be one of the most lethal spin bowlers in the planet. Recently, Narine also discovered his batting skills under Gambhir’s captaincy at KKR. He was also the man behind the rise of chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, who has wreaked havoc for India at the international stage this year.
The Arjuna awardee in 2009, this unsung hero from Delhi turns 36 today and SportsCrunch takes this opportunity to wish Gautam Gambhir a very happy birthday!