 Is the yardstick different for Gautam Gambhir?
17th Mar 2008 22:01 IST
Manish Kumar
Gambhir got a number of starts in the home series against Pakistan in 2005, but was able to make only one half-century in six innings. He made 97 in Zimbabwe later that year, but failed to reach 30 against Sri Lanka at home, repeatedly struggling against Chaminda Vaas, and was subsequently dropped from the Test team and replaced by Jaffer, who made a double hundred and a hundred in seven Tests.
Gambhir has often been criticized as not being able to convert his starts of 20 and 30 into larger scores and his string of poor scores is continually cited as evidence for this assertion.
After India's first-round exit from the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Gambhir was selected for the ODIs on India's 2007 tour of Bangladesh. Gambhir scored his second century on that tour and was subsequently selected for India's tour to Ireland in 2007. He scored an unbeaten 80 against Ireland in the first game of that tour and was awarded the man of the match award for that effort.
Then Gambhir was selected in India's squad for the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup, which India went on to win in South Africa, beating Pakistan in the final. Gambhir performed well in the shortest form of the game, ending the tournament as India's top run scorer, with 227 at an average of 37.83, including three half-centuries which included a crucial 75 runs off 54 balls against Pakistan in the final.
2008 started well for Gambhir. At home, he scored an unbeaten 130 in the Ranji Trophy final to help Delhi beat Uttar Pradesh by nine wickets just two days before the team for the ODI tournament in Australia was to be announced.
After having missed the Test series in Australia due to a shoulder injury, Gambhir hit top form in the Tri-Series, scoring an unbeaten 102 at the Gabba against Sri Lanka in a match washed out due to rain.
Three weeks later at Sydney, Gambhir scored a career-best 113 off 119 balls against Australia, in a high scoring match which India lost by 18 runs and finished the Tri-Series as the leading run-scorer with 440 runs.
But this did not seem to be enough to convince and impress the national selectors who today ignored Gambhir from India's 14-member squad for the first two Tests against South Africa. The yardstick surely seems to be different when it comes to Gambhir. |
