Blogs Seriously… Gambhir
October 29th, 2008 by kapoorThe Kotla test match began with India winning the toss electing to bat on a pitch that looked very slow and dry from the onset. The Indian innings was supposed to be given a swashbuckling opening that everyone is accustomed to from the Indian openers. However, the real story turned out pretty differently. It was evident that the batsmen had to be quick to come on to the frontfoot to keep away the incoming deliveries that would tend to slide in lower than the expectation of the batsman. However, the local hero, Sehewag didn’t seem to think so and was clearly sluggish in moving his feet when Brett Lee struck in the third over of the match and had Virender Sehwag plumb in front of the wickets.
Dravid walked in and tried to steady the ship in the company of Gambhir but didn’t last too long. By this time it was evident that the pitch wasn’t the most conducive surface for playing strokes on the up. It needed one of the Indian batsmen to try and hold the innings together and this exactly what Gambhir did. He plugged his usual style of coming down the wicket or playing uppish square drives. Instead, he chose a more sedate role, allowing his partners the comfort of knowing that at least one of them was ready to play out the entire day. In fact, at one point in time, Dravid’s scoring rate was better than that of Gambhir! It is difficult to imagine how an attacking batsman like Gambhir could subdue and mould his game so well.
I believe that Sachin Tendulkar was able to play his natural game and went on the offensive against the Aussie quicks only because Gambhir had blunted the Aussie attack at one end. Tendulkar started playing his usual strokes while Gambhir decided to seek the singles and play with a straight bat. Gambhir continued to stand tall, facing the likes of Lee with composure and brought up his century around the 60th over of the match. If he could play such mature innings more often, it would allow the likes of Dravid and Tendulkar to play more freely. It is about time this talented left-hander fulfils his potential and establishes himself as India’s unquestioned opening batsman.
