It takes some courage and conviction to admit publicly that, even eight years after making your international debut and having established yourself as a key member of the national team, you are still gripped by insecurity and the need to keep proving yourself. It also provides an insight into the mental make-up of the individual, driven and consumed by his desire to play for the country, even if it can sometimes be at the expense of enjoying the entire experience.
Gautam Gambhir is a rarity in international sport. Always committed, forever on a mission to prove a point and not unaware that you are only as good as your last performance, he gives the impression that while he loves being an international cricketer, there is something more to the fierce determination with which he approaches a game. It perhaps stems from the fact that he had to bide his time to earn back the India cap that was first bestowed on him in November 2004. It also most likely comes from the drive to protect his turf. It has been a difficult two and a half years in Test cricket for Gambhir – difficult not because the runs have dried to a trickle, but because the centuries haven’t been forthcoming. Cricketers, and especially those at the top of the order, are judged as much on the quantum of runs they make as the hundreds they stack up. Gambhir hasn’t made a Test hundred since January 2010, a long barren stretch during which he has seen a fair share of injuries but no serious threat to his place in the side.
This year has already been a roller-coaster ride. His Test travails have continued, but he has scored runs in limited-overs cricket – in Australia in the triangular series, in Dhaka during the Asia Cup, and in Sri Lanka in July-August when India played five One-Day Internationals and a Twenty20 International. He surprisingly lost the vice-captaincy to Virat Kohli, and then regained it, again for no discernible reason. But with Virender Sehwag, his opening partner, too struggling for consistency and the big runs that once made him one of the most feared batsmen in the world, Gambhir needed a few runs of his own going into the Super Eights of the World Twenty20.
A pronounced propensity to play away from his body, especially in the early stages of his innings, has cost Gambhir dear in recent times. He has either ended up fishing at, and nicking, deliveries well outside off-stump, or played a little outside the line and directed the ball off the inside edge on to his stumps.
