Former India opener turned mentor Gautam Gambhir has admitted that he regrets not being there at the end when the Indian Team won the 2011 ODI World Cup final. The veteran also said that it was his job to finish the game and not to leave it to someone else as well. However, India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in the 2011 World Cup final at the Wankhede in Mumbai. Chasing a target of 275, India lost Virender
Sehwag (0) and Sachin Tendulkar (18) with only 31 on the board.
However, Gautam Gambhir, top-scored with 97 off 122, while captain MS Dhoni led from the front with an unbeaten 91 off 79. While he played a brilliant innings, Gambhir was bowled by Thisara Perera with the score at 223. Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh (21*), then ensured that the Indian team won the title without any further trouble.
“I wish I had finished that game. It was my job to finish the game, rather than leaving someone to finish the game. If I had to turn back the clock, I would go back there and score the last run, irrespective of how many runs I scored,” he was quoted as saying by PTI. “I have always thought about performing for the fans, and that has been my thought since the last year of my training career. In the middle, I got this honor of captaining India for six games. I tried doing it to the best of my ability.”Otherwise, I have no regrets whatsoever because my job was not to captain the series. My job was to make my country win, and whichever team I play for, make that team win.”
Gautam Gambhir also recalled former Australia captain Ricky Ponting sledged him during the 2008 Border Gavaskar Trophy.
“The funniest sledge was when I was playing my first Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Bangalore. Ricky Pointing said something when I was batting. He was at a silly point, and he said, ‘You haven’t set the world on fire’ or something like that. I had finished the series as the highest run-scorer. He was at silly point, and he said ‘you haven’t set the world on fire’. I said ‘Neither have you in India. To be honest, you have been a bunny’. His record says that as well, he’s been a bunny in India,” said Gambhir on Star Sports’ Cricket Connected show.
