Blazzing Batsman: Gautam Gambhir's profile

Gautam Gambhir is a left-handed opening batsman in the Indian cricket team known for his blazing batting style and a uniquely balanced yet aggressive approach to the game. He is born on 14^th October,1981 in Delhi, his nickname is “Gauti”. Gautam Gambhir comes from an army background and has a younger sister named Ekta.

Gambhir had been a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket with an average of over 50 but his two successive double-hundreds in 2002 (one of them against the visiting Zimbabweans) made him a strong contender for India's opening slot. He became only the fourth Indian batsman to score a double century in a tour game at home; the previous three being Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sachin Tendulkar. He is the only Indian batsman to score more than 300 runs in four consecutive Test series. He is also the only Indian, and one of only four international cricketers, to have scored five hundreds in five consecutive test matches.

Gambhir was studied at the Modern School, New Delhi. Gambhir was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Gautam Gambhir made his First-class debut during the 1999-2000 season and since then has been a consistent performer for the Delhi team. In 2008, he scored an unbeaten 130 in the Ranji Trophy final to help Delhi beat Uttar Pradesh by nine wickets.

Gautam Gambhir made his Test debut against Australia at Mumbai on 3^rdNovember, 2004 in the fourth and last Test match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy but did himself no favours by getting out for 3 and 1. He made amends in his second Test, however, scoring 96 against the South Africans. His maiden Test century came against Bangladesh in December 2004.

On 11^thApril, 2003, Gautam Gambhir played his first One Day International (ODI) in the TVS Cup against Bangladesh at Dhaka, where he scored 71 runs in his third match of the series and was named Man of the Match. His maiden century {103 off 97 balls) came against Sri Lanka in 2005.

Gautam Gambhir made his Twenty20 International (T20) debut against Scotland at Durban on September 13, 2007. He was selected in Indian squad to play in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 Cricket Cup in South Africa. In the final against Pakistan, he made a crucial 75 runs off 54 balls and helped India beat Pakistan to lift the trophy. With 227 runs at an average of 37.83, including 3 half-centuries, Gautam Gambhir was India’s top run scorer in the tournament.

On July 2009, for a period of ten days he was the number one ranked batsman in ICC Test rankings.

For his impressive performance, Gautam Gambhir was signed by Delhi Daredevils for US$725,000 to play in Indian Premier League (IPL) for the 2008-2010 season. Later Kolkata Knight Riders bought Gambhir for $2.4 million (Rs 11.04 crore) during an auction for the fourth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), beating the previous high set by the English duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff ($1.55 million) last season.

Gautam Gambhir received the ‘Best Asian Batsman T20’ award from Roger Elston Green, Managing Director, Castrol Pakistan Private Limited.

Apart from playing cricket, Gautam Gambhir likes spending time reading and relaxing with his family, and he also sometimes goes on long drives with his friends. He likes playing PlayStation Portable (PSP) games and his favorite television serial is Left Right Left.

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