Gautam Gambhir, the conventional Indian opener seems to think out of the box to tackle the bowlers. When you hear the name Gambhir, the first thing that plays on every one’s mind, is the famous T20 and ODI final, where India won the prestigious trophies.
But the Gambhir boat seemed to be sunk after his top-notch performance in the 2011 ODI world cup final, which later costed him to lose his spot on the national team. Of course, his performance in IPL had been always top class, but that didn’t seem to help him in regaining the national team spot.
Shikhar Dhawan’s plunge, Gambhir’s Duleep Trophy performance, did gain him (Gambhir) a spot in the Indian Test team. Returning to the Test team was never a cake walk for the senior opener, he had to go, out of the syllabus for that. Yes, the orthodox opener did it! He changed his stance at the crease. Standing right across the wicket, now you know who used to do this, the famous Windies batsman Chanderpaul.
Gambhir opted this new stance in IPL, but not many noticed. But by looking at his recent success in the Duleep trophy, no one could hold, talking about his stance. The Indian opener continues the new stance in the ongoing England series, hope that works out for him, it has done on the day 2 for now.
But where did he get his new stance from? The story starts in Perth, where Gambhir landed to visit the former Aussie, Justin Langer. Justin Langer himself was a lefty. Gambhir search for innovative ideas to defend his weak zone stopped here. Gambhir always had trouble with the outside off stump deliveries, which dragged him to opt the new technique.
But it was not Langer, who suggested him to change his stance, rather that was Justin’s coach Neil who suggested this technique. The conventional Indian opener feels that it was okay to follow few suggestions when they help one’s game. At the same time, he also mentions that he is still a conventional player which he used to be.
Gautam seems to have broken his game to rebuild on the new technique. Keep in mind that he is a senior player, which makes it much more difficult to change one’s technique after playing cricket for these many years.a
We saw many players who enhanced their techniques in many ways, to make a comeback to their national team, that’s not new. But changing the stance completely is not that easy for any player, it takes a lot of courage and hard work. Which of course did pay him (Gautam) back in the Duleep trophy. Now it’s time for Gambhir to get the results from his new version on an international stage.
Now let’s take the delight of watching Gambhir perform in his new stance, hoping he gets back the result he anticipated for!
