The head coach of the Indian men's cricket team, Gautam Gambhir, has often been described as a misunderstood character. Often during his playing days, Gambhir would walk around the field with his heart on his sleeve. Displaying incredible passion, Gambhir was at the centre of some of India's famous victories, especially at ICC events. He was instrumental in Team India's success at the ICC World T20 in 2007 and the 2011 ODI World Cup. Gambhir emerged as one of India's greatest match-winners, but there were times when he had to compete with some of the best players for his place in the team.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra, also an opening batsman during his playing days, has revealed how drastic changes were made in the Indian team to accommodate the batsmen, which even led to Virender Sehwag being demoted to the number 4 spot.
“We are competitors because we were fighting for a spot. Our team was very good. When we were playing, only one of Kohli and Dhawan got a chance to play. The team was like that. In fact, there was no place for even Viru to open the batting. Viru batted four so that we could accommodate one of Shikhar and Virat at No. 3,” Chopra recalled in a podcast with Raj Shamani on YouTube.
Chopra was not shy about admitting that he was not friends with Gambhir, as there was initially extreme competition in the team for top spots. But Gambhir's passion was visible to everyone, including Chopra.
“We were competitors at first. To be honest, he wasn't a friend, but he was a very passionate guy, very hard-working and very serious about his craft. And he scored a lot of runs. But he always wore his heart on his sleeve, he was extremely passionate and he could lose his temper very quickly in terms of his temper,” Chopra revealed.
“He's a good-hearted boy, he comes from a very wealthy family. For that boy to have that kind of passion… he would be on the ground all day. He was born with a golden spoon, not even a silver one. It's a different journey, basically like Abhinav Bindra. Gautam has his heart in the right place,” Chopra said.
Topics mentioned in this article