Gautam Gambhir’s IPL fortunes have always been closely tied to his team’s fortunes, and one look at this year’s results exemplifies it aptly.
While the Knight Riders’ skipper was scoring, his team were restricting opposition and carrying out clinical chases. But the moment Gambhir’s runs dried up, the team’s performances dipped in sync with their captain.
Looking at this season in retrospect, Gambhir seems to have left behind a legacy of controversies that have stood out more than the runs he has scored.
HOW GAMBHIR REDISCOVERED HIS TOUCH
Gambhir had a rather poor IPL season last year when he struggled for form and looked a shadow of his former self. As KKR threw away their advantage and failed to make it to the top-four, people began to wonder if Gambhir’s time was up.
His below par IPL stint that year had come after a brief re-appearance for India in Tests in 2014. His English sojourn would remain just that as he was subsequently dropped on the back of uninspired performances in the four innings he batted. Regularly nicking the ball outside the off-stump, Gambhir’s technique was repeatedly questioned by fans and pundits alike.
“I know there is a talk about that but I don’t see it as a demon to be honest,” Gambhir told Reuters at the time. “It’s a mode of dismissal that a lot of left-handers go through and so do right-handers when they face left-arm quicks bowling over the wicket.”
It was at that point of time that Gambhir turned to former Aussie opener Justin Langer for some batting advice. “I’ve always followed JL’s career closely,” Gambhir told the Hindustan Times. “He built his game block by block, step by step. After the death of my coach Parthasarthy Sharma I was looking for someone who could understand my game. I wanted to give it a shot with JL and that is why I am in Perth.
“I met JL briefly when he came to India with the Perth Scorchers during last year’s Champions League T20. I could instantly relate to him. What I like about JL is his intensity. His body language on the crease while batting or otherwise meant business. He is a no-nonsense guy and I like it that way.”
Gambhir also put in rigorous sessions in Perth, practising gymnastics and martial arts to develop better footwork and nimble reflexes while facing the faster bowlers.
“The entire thing is beautifully married into the cricket programme and there is logic in what these guys do,” Gambhir said. “After taking part in these sessions I understood that gymnastics was focused at helping the boys improve their fielding by making them do various stretches and martial arts was trained at bettering the footwork and agility of the players.”
All the hard work he had put in began to pay dividends. The more open stance he used ensured that he did not get too far across the line very often and his problems against the in-swinging deliveries were negated. In the 2015/16 Ranji Trophy season, his first two outings saw him score back-to-back 90s and things looked like they were falling back into place.
A GOOD START TO IPL 9
By the time the IPL came around, Gambhir and KKR started the season sitting pretty at the top of the table. Gambhir and Robin Uthappa were handing them consistent starts, leading their team’s charge from the front. Gambhir was playing calm, composed, match-winning knocks and as so often he had done in the past, seemed to be the rock at the top of the order for the Kolkata franchise.
He ended the season with 501 runs, becoming one of four players to cross the 500-run mark this season and the fourth highest run-scorer in the league. It was the third time in the nine years of the IPL that Gambhir has scored more than 500 runs in a season and at 38.53 he also had his second-best average for an IPL season, coming close to his par-40 while playing for Delhi in 2008.
Gambhir’s stellar performances with the bat were a marked improvement on his indifferent form last season when he managed 327 runs at an average of 25.15. Determined to set the record straight amid speculations about whether he was still the best man for the job, Gambhir embraced the challenge.
With a shift to a more bottom-hand approach and a more open stance, Gambhir 2.0 looked leaner, fitter and hungrier for runs. The lackadaisical indifference of last season had been replaced by a sharper keenness and an unmistakable winning mentality.
Yet just when things seemed to be picking up, they trailed off mysteriously. KKR lost a bit of momentum and dropped out of the top two in the points table. The first eliminator saw them crash out to an upbeat Sunrisers, bringing down the curtains on yet another unsuccessful season for the Knight Riders.
Gambhir’s own form tapered off as he failed to fire when it mattered most. After scoring 226 from the first four games of the season, he could manage only 275 runs from the remaining ten.
A SEASON OF CONTROVERSIES
The KKR captain has, over the last few IPL seasons, been no stranger to controversy. His crunching cover-drives are always complemented by needless, foul-mouthed tirades aimed at his adversaries. With the added responsibility of captaincy, Gambhir largely fails to remain calm under pressure and tends to get into unnecessary confrontations.
Two of his most controversial moments this season came in matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gambhir found himself in real trouble as the camera picked up live images of his frantic sideline antics in Bangalore when his team was on the verge of winning.
A pumped up Gambhir kicked at a chair, in the process setting social media abuzz and leaving most of his fans displeased. He was fined 15 per cent of his match fee but his fondness for trouble did not end there.
His next moment of hotheadedness was again born out of the RCB rivalry as Gambhir threw the ball at the stumps/Virat Kohli quite unnecessarily. Kohli was well in his crease and the act was more needless needle.
Kohli, who has had his fair share of IPL run-ins with Gambhir, was rightly unhappy with the throw, and when the umpires intervened Gambhir was heated in his bid to justify his part in proceedings.
These two acts of impetuousness scarred Gambhir’s season in the public conscious. Overwhelming condemnation of his actions poured in perhaps vindicating an unpopular suggestion made by MS Dhoni that Gambhir had a major attitude problem.
Regardless, this was all of his own making, Gambhir getting himself into a mini rut towards the end of the season as he struggled for consistency and the fortunes of his team suffered.
WHY HE WAS NOT PICKED FOR TOURS TO ZIMBABWE AND WEST INDIES
Despite this, Gambhir could be forgiven for believing that he’s done enough to warrant a place in the national side. But when the teams for the tours to Zimbabwe and the West Indies were announced, he discovered to his disappointment that he had been overlooked once again.
The selectors have, as expected, gone with a young side for the tour to Zimbabwe, keeping in mind next year’s Champions Trophy and the World Cup in 2019. Gambhir’s biggest opportunity was perhaps the tour to the West Indies where India play four Tests in the months of July and August.
But with openers Murali Vijay and KL Rahul expectedly retained, Gambhir lost out when Shikhar Dhawan got the nod ahead of him. Despite Dhawan’s rather indifferent form for India of late, he remains the preferred choice for now.
At 34 and out of favour, Gambhir has a right to be discouraged while in good form and must be wondering what more he can do to make a comeback. He can perhaps take optimism from the recent comebacks of former teammates Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra. But if the rumour mills are to be believed Gambhir has done himself no favours by getting on the wrong side of Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir played crucial roles in India’s 2011 WC win.
Ever since Dhoni had reportedly complained of Gambhir’s attitude in the team, the latter had seemingly been dying to gain his own revenge on the India limited-overs captain. It certainly seemed the case when Gambhir, asked about Dhoni’s finishing skills, made the most of making a tongue-in-cheek jibe at Dhoni.
“I don’t believe in designating an individual as a finisher because a player who bats till the very end and finishes the game is the finisher. A finisher could be openers as well and we have seen Virat Kohli finishing games,” Gambhir said.
The comment, rather than being considered in isolation, should be considered as a part of the larger ongoing feud between Gambhir and Dhoni.
His bad relationship with Kohli was played out in the public in an ugly manner thanks to an on-field verbal spat in IPL 6. Ever since then, there has been a palpable undercurrent of simmering discontent between the two.
Many like to believe that Gambhir, despite being a fabulous batsman, lacks an intelligent cricketing brain. That does not always mean reading the game accurately, but also constitutes personal conduct on the field and the network of relationships you maintain with the most powerful men in the national cricketing sphere. In India, a country that hinges on such political alliances to rise the ranks, it is most certainly the case.
Gambhir’s hot-blooded, impetuous nature seems to be doing him a great disservice. Unless at the ripe age of 34 a timely realisation dawns on him that shrewder malevolence – if not blunt flattery – is as great a virtue as the runs he scores, these outbursts will continue to be dismissed as irrelevant tantrums of a bad tempered child.
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