Birthday special: Gautam Gambhir – Lesser-known facts about the cricketer
Gautam Gambhir is the unsung hero of Indian cricket who played many match-winning knocks for the team when needed. In fact, he was the pioneer of both of the Indian team’s world title triumphs- He scored a precious 75 in the T20 World Cup 2007 final against arch-rivals Pakistan and a memorable 97 against Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup.
It has been four years since the southpaw retired and even after bidding adieu to the game, he gives it back as a cricket pundit, and broadcaster, mentoring the IPL team Lucknow Super Giants, and, playing the cricket tournaments exclusively for the retired players.
As the Delhi cricketer turns 41 on October 14, here are some of the lesser-known facts about him.
India never lost a game with Gambhir as captain
It is to be noted that India never lost a match that he captained. In the six ODIs that he led between 2010 to 2011, the Men in Blue have successfully maintained a 100% win record. He led India in 6 ODIs and ended up winning all of them.
Only Indian to score over 300 runs in four consecutive Test series
Gambhir is the only Indian to score over 300 runs in four consecutive Test series’. He scored 310, 463, 361 and 445 runs against Sri Lanka (away), Australia (home), England (home) and New Zealand (away) respectively between 2008 and 2009.
Furthermore, 2009 was a memorable year for Gambhir as far as individual excellence is concerned. Not only did he achieve the top spot in the ICC Test rankings but also went on to bag the prestigious ICC Test Player of the Year award.
Gambhir’s philanthropist initiatives
The Delhi batter is a parliamentarian and serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in the East Delhi constituency.
Apart from being a very accomplished cricketer, Gautam Gambhir has also been an extremely good human being as well as a true patriot and humanitarian. He can be seen giving his opinions on politics and national issues on his official Twitter handle.
Gambhir has also been working as a philanthropist and he has started The Gautam Gambhir Foundation which looks after social issues and works for the welfare of the people. The GGF is actively involved in taking care of the educational needs of the children of the paramilitary martyrs.
The foundation has also given weightage to the environmental problems by planting trees with an aim of making Delhi a greener city and thereby, tackling air pollution.
