Omitted from the Indian ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 squad, a heartbroken and distraught Gautam Gambhir later recalled in a Hindustan Times video that he had almost quit cricket after the snub. However, as luck would have it, he found himself in the Indian Playing XI for ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa later that year.
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Having not played a T20I until then and played a total of five T20s the same year, Gambhir couldn’t have had a worse start to his T20I career than scoring a duck against Pakistan in Durban. Desperately wanting to do well in his first world event, the former batter getting out on the third ball of the match was followed by a sleepless night.
“Debut game against Pakistan, got out on a zero and then came back in my room and probably couldn’t sleep the whole night because this was something which I always wanted to be part of. For what? 10 years? 15 years? And started my World Cup debut with a duck against Pakistan and then things can change very quickly and that is what I am gonna tell you guys here as well. Things can change so quickly that [in] 2007 February I was on the verge of leaving cricket and [in] 2007 September we ended up winning the World Cup, the only World Cup and then the highest run-getter in the World Cup final”, Gambhir said while interacting with students of a university in 2019.
If truth be told, Gambhir never really got going in any of his debut matches for India across formats. In his ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2003, Gambhir scored 11 (22) to follow it with 3 (8) and 1 (13) on Test debut against Australia the following year.
Having said that, he made instant amends in the shortest format by scoring consecutive half-centuries against New Zealand and England before scoring a match-winning one against Pakistan in the final to emerge as the second-highest run-scorer of the inaugural edition of World Twenty20.
Gautam Gambhir And His Tryst With ICC Events
Known for stepping up in crucial tournaments, Gambhir kick-started ICC World Twenty20 2009 campaign with a half-century against Bangladesh but could never touch the 50-run mark in 13 T20Is across the remaining of 2009 World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 2010 and ICC World Twenty20 2012.
Also played in South Africa, Gambhir commenced his ODI career with regard to ICC tournaments with a half-century against Pakistan in Centurion. While he failed in the only other instance of India batting in that tournament, his only other appearance in a global ODI tournament had come in a title-winning ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
India’s second-highest run-scorer in the tournament with 393 runs including four half-centuries, Gambhir had scored a match-winning 97 (122) in the final against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium.
Although not in an ICC tournament, India’s refreshing victory in Commonwealth Bank Series 2008, a triangular series played in Australia, was made possible because of Gambhir top-scoring by amassing 440 runs at an average of 55 across 10 innings.
