CRICKETERS OF INDIA – GAUTAM GAMBHIR
INDIAN CRICKETER – GAUTAM GAMBHIR
Gautam Gambhir (born 14 October 1981, in Delhi) is an Indian cricketer, a batsman. He has been a member of the Indian national cricket team since 2003 (ODIs) and 2004 (Tests). 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. On July 2009, for a period of ten days he was the number one ranked batsman in ICC Test rankings.
Gambhir attended Modern School, New Delhi. Gambhir was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. He is set to tie knot with Natasha Jain, who belongs to a prominent business family based in Model Town, in a simple ceremony in late 2011. Gambhir was picked up by the Delhi Daredevils franchise in the first player auction of the Indian Premier League for a price of US$725,000 a year. He became the second highest run-scorer of the inaugural season with 534 runs from 14 matches. He was promoted to the post of Captain of the Delhi Daredevils for IPL Season 2010. At the end of the tournament he became the only player from Delhi Daredevils to score more than 1000 runs in all the three editions. In the 2011 IPL Players Auction,Gautam was the most sought player fetching a bid of $2.4 million from Kolkata Knight Riders making him the highest paid cricketer in the history of the game. He is also the captain of the Knight Riders.
Gambhir made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in the TVS Cup in 2003. In his third match, he scored 71 and was named Man of the Match. His maiden century (103 off 97 balls) came against Sri Lanka in 2005. In 2004, he made his Test debut against Australia 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.