Top Players Under Gautam Gambhir’s Captaincy: Indian cricket has seen many successful reigns of captaincy. From the likes of Tiger Pataudi to now Rohit Sharma, there has been no dearth of quality Indian captains. India has also had brief captaincy stints of inspirational leaders. Captains like Anil Kumble led the side in testing times. Similarly, Gautam Gambhir too was an influential leader. He led KKR to twin IPL titles in 2012 and 2014. Gambhir led India in 6 games, winning all of them.
We Look At Top Players Whom Gambhir Led During His Tenure:
#4 Ravichandran Ashwin
He is one of those cricketers who worked their way through the IPL. Ravichandran Ashwin had a breakthrough season in IPL 2010. He soon broke into the Indian team on the back of strong domestic performances. Gambhir backed Ashwin completely in the series against New Zealand. Ashwin repaid the faith beautifully picking 11 wickets in 5 games. It was this series that gave the selectors confidence to pick him for the World Cup.
#3 Zaheer Khan
He is arguably India’s finest left-arm seamer. Zaheer Khan had a new lease of life post his county stint in 2006-07. He was instrumental in India’s iconic series win in England in 2007. Khan bought reverse swing into play. He engineered many collapses both with the new and the old ball. Khan himself was one of the sharpest minds in the game. He was part of Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy team that played against New Zealand. Khan picked a couple of wickets in two games under Gambhir.
#2 Yuvraj Singh
He was making a comeback to the side after injury concerns and poor form. Yuvraj Singh was keen to play all the five games of the 2010-11 home series against New Zealand. He wanted to get back in prime form ahead of the 2011 ODI World Cup. Yuvraj had a fine series as he notched up 120 runs in four innings at an average of 60.00. He showed his all-round prowess picking up 5 wickets. Singh then went on to put on a show in the World Cup picking up the player of the tournament award.
#1 Virat Kohli
It was the year of self-discovery for Virat Kohli in international cricket. He was slowly establishing himself in the ODI setup. Kohli was making the number 4 spot his own. His run-scoring had a familiar pattern. He would focus largely on picking out singles and doubles at the start of his innings.
In the absence of big names, it was imperative to seal his place ahead of the World Cup. Kohli didn’t disappoint. He had a terrific series against New Zealand scoring 234 runs at an average of 58.50. It was along with Gambhir and under him that Kohli really flourished.
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