Posts Tagged ‘Gautam Gambhir’

NEW DELHI: Indian cricket team heaved a sigh of relief as opening Gautam Gambhir clean a fitness test to join his teammates who will leave instead of South Africa on Friday.

Speaking with the media earlier leaving instead of Champions Trophy in South Africa, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni assumed with the aim of India is in the middle of the favourite to win the play-offs, which commence on September 22.

“Our IPL stint in South Africa gives us an pick your way on top of other competitors in the unravel,” the top ranked ODI batsman assumed in Mumbai.

India opening Gautam Gambhir was declared fit instead of Champions Trophy later than alternative up an injury all through the Corporate Cup semi-final match and consequently missing the tri-series in Sri Lanka.

“Gambhir’s return to the part will strength the line-up,” assumed Dhoni.

Replying to the question of rankings’ ups and downs the India person in charge assumed we are concerned more or less our performance not more or less rankings. We comedy too much cricket rotund the time it is not advisable to take level pressure, he assumed.

On the likelihood of India emerging champion MSD assumed our top performance was in 2002 as soon as we were declared hang out winners with Sri Lanka and at the moment we hope to show again the performance to bring the cup residence.

Speaking on the injuries of pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and dashing opening Virender Sehwag the India person in charge assumed, “Zaheer’s injury will take round about to heal while we hope to tolerate Sehwag back soon. But we will without doubt departure to fail to attend both our star performers.

Dubai: Gautam Gambhir became the number one batsman, replacing Pakistani run-machine Mohammad Yousuf in the latest ICC Test Player rankings issued on Wednesday.

Incidentally, Gambhir reached the top when the ODI batting chart is also led by an Indian, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Yousuf, who had returned to the batting table last week in number one position after his century in the first Test at Galle, flopped in the second Test to drop to fifth position. Accordingly, Gambhir became the sixth India batsman to lead the batting table in this version of the game.

The 27-year-old left-handed opener is the first Indian batsman after former captain Rahul Dravid to top the batting chart. Dravid had briefly become the number-one batsman after hitting centuries in each innings (110 and 135) of the Kolkata Test against Pakistan in March 2005. Dravid had first achieved the top batting ranking in January 1999 and has been number-one for 36 Tests between 1999 and 2005.

Sachin Tendulkar is the other India batsman in the last 15 years who has topped the batting chart. He first led the table in November 1994 while last time he occupied the number-one position was in August 2002 after the Leeds Test against England. Overall, Tendulkar has been the number-one batsman for 125 Tests between 1994 and 2002.

The other India batsmen to have achieved number-one positions in their careers are Gundappa Viswanath (seven matches in 1975), Sunil Gavaskar (46 matches between 1978-80) and Dilip Vengsarkar (17 matches between 1987-88).

Pakistan captain Younus Khan was able to retain his second position in the Test batting rankings but fell nine points behind Gambhir who, without hitting a ball, has gone ahead of both the Pakistan batsmen for the first time in his 25-Test career in which he has scored 2,271 runs at an average of over 54.

Gambhir’s 847 points is relatively low for a number-one position in modern times as usually a batsman nearer to the 900-point mark goes to the top, which reflects that he has benefited from some of the other top batsman being off their peaks.

With only 10 points separating Gambhir from third-placed Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka, the top order is expected to change again, of course depending how the Pakistan and Sri Lanka captains perform in the third and final Test which starts in Colombo from July 20.

The only big movers in the latest rankings are Pakistan opener Fawad Alam, who has entered the table in 52nd position after his 168 on his Test debut, and Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal whose century in the second innings has helped him rocket 22 places to 62nd spot.