On Friday, former India opener Gautam Gambhir has become one of the eight sportspersons to have to been picked for receiving the coveted Padma Shri, the country’s fourth-highest civilian award.
Apart from Gambhir, the seven other sportspersons named for the award were football player Sunil Chhetri, chess grandmaster Harika Dronavalli, table tennis player Sharath Kamal, archer Bombayla Devi Laishram, wrestler Bajrang Punia, basketball player Prashanti Singh and Kabaddi player Ajay Thakur.
Gambhir made his international cricket debut through the ODI format on April 11, 2003, against Bangladesh at Dhaka. Since then, he played 147 ODIs for the Indian cricket team and scored 5,238 runs (average 39.68) with the help of 11 centuries and 34 half-centuries, including the best knock of 150* against Sri Lanka at Kolkata (24 December 2009). His final ODI was against England at Dharamsala on January 27, 2013.
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He played a crucial role for the nation to win the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup for the second time as he was the sixth most run-getter (393 runs) in overall and second most run-getter for the Indian cricket team. In the final of that tournament, Gambhir (97) scored the highest runs for India that hugely helped the nation to win that tournament after successfully chasing the 275 runs target against Sri Lanka. His best ever ODI batting rank was 8 and his highest rating points as an ODI batsman was 722. He also led the national team in six ODIs and India won all those matches.
In November 2004, Gambhir made his Test debut against Australia at Mumbai. The left-handed batsman played 58 Tests where he scored 4,154 runs (average 41.95) with the help of nine centuries and 22 half-centuries. His best Test knock was 206 against Australia at Delhi in October 2008. He played his final Test against England at Rajkot in November 2016 and it was also his last international cricket match. Gambhir was an important member of the Indian Test cricket team that reached the no.1 Test rank for the first time ever (November 2009 to August 2011), since ICC officially began the ranking system in 2003. Gambhir’s best ever ICC Test batting rank 1 and his highest rating points as a Test batsman was 886.
On September 13, 2007, Gambhir made his T20I debut against Scotland at Durban (in 2007 ICC World T20). He played 37 T20Is and scored 932 runs (average 27.41) with the help of seven half-centuries. His best T20I knock was 75 against Pakistan at Johannesburg on September 24, 2007, during the final of 2007 ICC World T20 that India won by 5 runs and won that inaugural edition of World T20. While he was the highest runs scorer in that final game, Gambhir finished as the second leading run-scorer (227 runs) in that entire tournament. His best ever T20I batting rank was also the no.1 and his highest rating points as a T20I batsman was 723.
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Gambhir has also a brilliant IPL career. Starting his IPL career for Delhi Daredevils (2008-2010) since the inaugural edition of the tournament (2008), Gambhir’s best IPL career was for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) between 2011 and 2017. Under his captaincy, KKR won their only two IPL trophies till the date in 2012 and 2014 season. In the last season, he returned Delhi Daredevils as captain but in the middle of the season he stepped down from that role and soon he was dropped from the playing XI. Recently, the franchise released him during the trading window.
As a batsman, Gambhir is the fourth leading run-scorer in the IPL history. Playing 154 IPL matches, Gambhir scored 4,217 runs (average 31.23) with the help of 36 half-centuries. His best IPL knock was 93, playing for KKR against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Kolkata on April 28, 2012.
