Kolkata: Gautam Gambhir is in no mood to give up. Discarded from the Indian team, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper seems determined to make a comeback even if he is in his mid-thirties.
The left-hander recently posted a video on Twitter which read “Throw me into the wolves and I will return as the leader of the pack.” It’s pre-mature to infer what the Delhi southpaw wanted to convey through the video, but one can rest assured that he is not yet contemplating hanging up his boots.
It’s true that Gambhir hasn’t quite set the middle on fire after he was inducted into the Test team in place of an injured Shikhar Dhawan in the third Test against New Zealand. With just one half-century in four innings, Gambhir had to make way for KL Rahul in the Vishakapatnam Test against England.
Subsequently, he was dropped from the side for the remaining three Tests. There have already been speculations that the international career of Gambhir is over. With M Vijay and KL Rahul in Kohli’s scheme of things and Dhawan having recovered from an injury, it’s quite unlikely that the Indian captain would prefer his Delhi senior. Kohli has given enough indications of his preference on the top of the batting order.
However, Indian cricket has seen many a memorable comeback. Mohinder Amarnath, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and others silenced critics when they were planning to write their obituaries. The Gambhir-Kohli equation reminds us of the Ganguly-Rahul Dravid cold war during the Greg Chappell era.
Then captain Dravid and Ganguly weren’t on the best of terms, and coach Chappell was accused of creating a rift between the two friends who made their Test debuts together. Kohli and Gambhir aren’t the best of buddies and they have confronted each other publicly in the past. Their on-field spat fuels adds to rumours that Kohli wouldn’t be comfortable with Gambhir around.
But these are all speculations. However, the video does raise questions regarding Gambhir’s future course of action. In cricket, you can never have the final word. Some big scores and Gambhir might as well make his way back into the team. And it seems Gambhir is eyeing another comeback.