Gautam Gambhir aggregated 445 runs in the recently concluded test series between India and New Zealand, which earned him the man of the series award and resulted in a historic win for his team. His performance also earned him reams of praise from his fellow opener and teammate Virender Sehwag, who rated him among India’s best ever opening batsmen in international cricket, right alongside Sunil Gavaskar.

Sehwag is not given to making too many statements in the media but he does speak his mind when required and showed remarkable humility when he rated Gambhir higher than himself even as it was announced that he had earned the Wisden ‘Leading cricketer of the year award.’ For Sehwag it is Gambhir’s form and adaptability that are a delight and he thinks that the latter is the best in terms of technique, temperament and style. Sehwag clarified that Gambhir was the best and not he, Sehwag since Gambhir is an opener who has excelled in all forms of the game.

About the team as a whole, Sehwag expressed his satisfaction that this is a compact team where the players complement each other. He also praised bowlers Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh who were, according to him ‘superb’. For his part, Harbhajan Singh was of the view that he had silenced his critics with his excellent performance especially since he was returning from injury and now that the Indian team had won in New Zealand after 4 decades.

Though the conditions were difficult, Harbhajan clarified that it was the windy conditions rather than the pitches that made things difficult. He was quoted in the cricket news as saying that sometime it was so windy that it “threatened to blow you off the field” and that it was a challenge to maintain a steady run up and control. Harbhajan’s turn with the bat has now given him the confidence to consider himself a test all rounder since he had worked very hard on his batting.

Batting ace Sachin Tendulkar said that this series win was an achievement and that everyone was happy with the victory after 40 years. He also thanked the entire nation for its support to the team. A victorious team India returned from New Zealand in the early hours of Thursday to a tumultuous welcome.

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: