Dec. 2: It’s no great secret that if an opener bats through the innings in an ODI the team more often than not comes out on top. Sachin Tendulkar has illustrated this for a couple of decades now and for a period in the 1990s the Indian team’s fortunes began and ended with him.
The current India team are far less dependent on individuals but the success of openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir has been a vital cog in the team’s climb to the top. Sehwag is not one who will ever bat through the 50 overs but his Delhi mate Gambhir has a much more mature head on his shoulders. The maturity is visible in his captaincy in the first two ODIs against New Zealand as he has led India to a comprehensive 2-0 lead.
On Wednesday, he shut his critics up with a swashbuckling 138 off 116 balls. More importantly, he was there at the end to see his side home which delighted him more.
“As a captain, scoring your first 100 is always special but finishing the match off is far more pleasing than scoring a century and then getting out. Finishing the game was very important and I felt I did a good job,” Gambhir said after scoring his eighth ODI century.
For all his struggles in the Test arena, Gambhir has been consistent in the shorter format of the game. This year Gambhir has featured in 11 ODIs, averaging 51.7 with a strike-rate of over 90.
“I think in the last one year I have played in only 10 or 11 ODIs and in those I have scored at least 4 fifties. You can’t expect me to score century in every second game. I always felt that I was doing well in ODIs, it was just a matter of time that I converted those starts into hundreds,” he said.
The stand-in skipper was quick to praise M.S. Dhoni’s captaincy and believes he is the reason for India’s rise to the top. “I think MS has done a great job and has taken this team to another level. Whatever responsibility has been given to me I want to discharge it to the best of my ability,” he said.