Mumbai, November 23: While all eyes are on Virender Sehwag, who will be playing in his 100th Test, and Sachin Tendulkar, who will probably be featuring in his last Test on home soil, one man will be happy to have the focus off him: Gautam Gambhir.
The southpaw averages a disappointing 27.76 in his last 22 Tests and has scored just eight fifties. A battling 93 against South Africa at Cape Town is the closest the Indian opener has come to three figures.
With the selectors set to announce the squad for the remaining two Tests in Kolkata and Nagpur, and players like Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane breathing down his neck, the unusually long rope that he has been offered is fast threatening to become a noose. Gambhir knows that he has to deliver and what better venue for a second coming than the Wankhede, where he made his Test debut against Australia in the winter of 2004.
That game, played on a sand paper of a pitch, ended in just over two days and Gambhir fell to single-digit scores in both innings. But a 96 in Kanpur, against South Africa in his next Test, helped him get established. The tour of Bangladesh that followed saw him getting his first hundred (139) in Chittagong. Indifferent form against Pakistan and Sri Lanka at home, where he repeatedly fell lbw or bowled after falling over onto the leg side, saw him banished from the Test squad for almost two years.
All this while he kept scoring runs in domestic cricket and despite good performances in ODIs and T20s, he was desperate to make a Test comeback. His moment of reckoning came in the Ranji final against Uttar Pradesh at, where else but the Wankhede.
Leading Delhi, he was out for a blob to Praveen Kumar in the first innings as his side conceded a first-innings lead of 52 to UP. With chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar watching, everyone thought Gambhir had blown his chance again. But thanks to Pradeep Sangwan's five-wicket haul, Delhi were given a second lease of life and UP were bowled out for 177 and set Delhi 230 to win.
On a tricky wicket, Gambhir took the bull by the horns and smashed an unbeaten 130 off 154 balls to help Delhi bag the title and win Vengsarkar's confidence as he slotted him in for the Tri-series Down Under in which he scored two hundreds.
He hasn't looked back since.
Wankhede is also the venue where he soaked in the pressure like a sponge and slammed a brilliant and determined 97 in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka. His knock and the 109-run partnership with skipper MS Dhoni, after India had lost Sehwag (0) and Tendulkar (18) with the total on 31 in a tough chase of 275, were instrumental in India emerging champions.
Now with his career at the crossroads, Gambhir is back on the ground that launched him into the spotlight. Will it also help in his reincarnation as a Test batsman?
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