Former Indian cricketer, VVS Laxman complimented his former teammate Gautam Gambhir on Thursday, saying that the opener has always taken challenge head-on at the cricket field. Laxman shared a photo of Gambhir as part of his initiative of paying tribute to teammates who influenced him immensely in the course of his career.
Tweeting about the same, VVS Laxman wrote: “Massively inquisitive and totally obsessed with the game, @GautamGambhir never shied away from a challenge on a cricket field. Whether it was taking on express pace bowlers on spicy tracks overseas or standing up for a wronged teammate, he knew not what it was to back down”.
Massively inquisitive and totally obsessed with the game, @GautamGambhir never shied away from a challenge on a cricket field. Whether it was taking on express pace bowlers on spicy tracks overseas or standing up for a wronged teammate, he knew not what it was to back down. pic.twitter.com/RlZlGbucp1
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) June 11, 2020
Gambhir played as many as 58 Tests for India in which he amassed 4,154 runs with an average of 41.96. In ODIs, he appeared in 147 matches and made 5,238 runs with an average of 39.68. The southpaw also played a crucial role in India’s triumphant T20 World Cup 2007 and 50-over World Cup 2011 campaigns.
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In the finals against Pakistan in T20 World Cup, Gambhir played a match-winning knock of 75 runs and this innings helped India to post an above-par score on the tricky Johannesburg wicket. When someone talks about the finals of the 50-over World Cup, Gambhir’s knock often goes unnoticed.
India was chasing 275 runs in the finals against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium, and the side found itself in a tricky situation after losing the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. With India at 31/2, Gambhir steadied the ship for the side and he went on to play a knock of 97 runs from 122 balls.
He lost his wicket in the 42nd over of the innings, but by then he had made sure that the men in blue reach a comfortable position in the chase. In the end, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh took India to their second 50-over World Cup win. Gambhir was also exceptional in his Indian Premier League (IPL) career as he took Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to the title win in 2012 and 2014.
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Gautam Gambhir was also the only Indian and one of four international cricketers to have scored hundreds in five consecutive Test matches. He is the only Indian batsman to have scored more than 300 runs in four consecutive Test series. In 2019, he was also conferred with the Padma Shri award, which is the fourth highest civilian award in India.
