Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir is an Indian batsman and he opens the batting for India.  He is a left handed batsman and he represents Delhi in Ranji Trophy. He is the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He has also been the captain of Indian Team for six matches and India won all the six matches under his captaincy. He made his debut in the One Day International (ODI) in 2003 against Bangladesh and made his international test debut in 2004 against Australia.  He is best known for his crucial batting that helped India win the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup where he scored 75 runs in the final as well as the 2011 World Cup where he made the most important 97 runs in the final and helped India win the World Cup.  He also helped KKR win the IPL twice.  He is the only Indian batsman to hold the record of hitting five centuries in five consecutive test matches.  He also holds the record of scoring more than 300 runs in four consecutive test matches, the only Indian to do so. He has been at the top of the ICC ranking and also has been the recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2008 and ICC Test Player of The Year Award in 2009. 

Gautam was born to Deepak Gambhir and Seema Gambhir on 14th October 1981 in New Delhi.  His father manages textile business whereas his mother is a housewife.  However, he lived with his grandparents since childhood and later lived with his maternal uncle Pawan Gulati whom he also considers his mentor. Gautam completed his schooling from Modern School in New Delhi and then did his graduation from Hindu College, Delhi University.  From his childhood, he had his interest in cricket and started playing from the age of 10. He was coached in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy by Raju Bharadwaj. Gautam joined the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore in 2000.

Gautam started to play the domestic cricket and represented Delhi in Ranji Trophy. He was very successful and was selected to represent the Junior Indian Cricket Team.  In 2002, he scored two successive double hundreds and impressed the selectors, finding a spot with the the Indian cricket team. He made his ODI debut in 2003 against Bangladesh in the TVS Cup. In the third ODI, he scored 71 runs and was declared the Man of the Match. Later in 2004, he made his test debut against Australia but failed to score well in the first match he played. He was selected for the South African Tour and he scored 96 and later made his first test century against Bangladesh in December 2004. In 2005, he made his maiden ODI Century and scored 103 against Sri Lanka.  He was then selected for the test series against Zimbabwe where he scored 97 but later in the home series against Sri Lanka, he failed to perform well and then got replaced by Wasim Jaffer.  He wasn't even a part of the 2007 World Cup but after the bad performance of the team in the World Cup resulting to the first round exit, he was selected for the 2007 Series against Bangladesh.  He scored his second ODI century in the series and got selected for India's Tour of Ireland.  He performed well against Ireland and was even awarded the Man of the Match Award in the first match.  After his performances, he was selected for the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup as the opener.  India won the World Cup and Gambhir was certainly played an important part. His brilliant 75 runs' innings in the finals was much appreciated.  He was the top scorer for India in the world cup and scored three half centuries in the tournament.  His brilliant performance in the tournament made him the favourite for the 2008 CB series.  However, due to a bad shoulder injury he was forced to miss the test series.  He was a part of the ODI series and he scored an unbeaten 102 against Sri Lanka and later scored 113 against Australia to become the highest run scorer in the tournament.  He finally got a chance to play in test cricket and he was selected for the 2008 Border-Gawaskar Trophy and was the opening batsman of the team along with Virender Sehwag.  He scored a double century in the series and scored 463 runs in the series. Gautam's excellent performance prompted his selection for the test series against England and later against New Zealand and he was the leading run scorer in both the test series.  During the test series against New Zealand, he scored 137 runs from 430 balls in five sessions and helped India from losing the match.  His performance helped India win the series against New Zealand after 41 years.  His performances helped him win the ICC Test Player of the Year Award in 2009 and he was ranked as the No 1 test batsman in July. In the First Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong in January 2009, Gambhir hit a rapid 116 from 129 balls. It was his fifth century in as many Tests and made him the fourth player to achieve this feat. Only Don Bradman has managed six centuries in as many matches. In the 29th Test match against Bangladesh at Dhaka he rewrote the history of IVA Richards by scoring most fifty plus runs in 11 consecutive matches. In this match he scored 66 runs.  He was then appointed as the captain of the National Team for the ODI series against New Zealand and he played a captain innings of 150 runs in the fourth match and helped India to secure a series win and was also awarded the man of the series award. His performance helped him earn a spot in the 2011 World Cup where he again proved vital to the team after scoring 97 runs in the final against Sri Lanka and helped India win the World Cup after 28 years.

His batting in the entire tournament received critical acclaim from many cricket legends.  However, his performance in the test matches declined and he was able to score 704 runs in 25 innings at an average of 29.33.  He performed well in the ODI's and scored 92 off 111 against Australia in 2012 and was awarded the man of the match award and he continued his performance and scored 91 off 106 balls against Sri Lanka and made his spot fix in the upcoming T20 World Cup.  He continued to play for the Indian cricket but after a decline in his performance,  he wasn't made a part of the national cricket and after a huge gap,  he was selected for the series against New Zealand and he played a good innings that included a half century.  

Gambhir is married to Natasha Jain who belongs to a prominent business family.  The duo got married in October 2011 and got settled at Rajendra Nagar in Delhi. In IPL, he currently is the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders and helped his team to win the 2012 as well as 2014 IPL Trophy.  His performance in all the IPL tournaments has been above expectations.  For all his contribution to the Indian Cricket, Gambhir was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2008 by the then President of India, Pratibha Patil.