Gautam Gambhir Wife, Family, Age, Stats And Records

In today’s article, we are going to talk about a former Indian cricketer who is an unsung hero of the Indian cricket team and a true leader. With his leadership, he has helped a franchise to end the title drought of 10 long years after playing a crucial role in their 2 IPL victories as a captain of the team. Yes! We are talking about India’s new head coach Gautam Gambhir who played a crucial knock in India’s 2 World Cup victories in 2007 and 2011, which helped Men in Blue to lift the trophy.

Gautam Gambhir was born on 14 October 1981 into a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family in New Delhi to Deepak Gambhir, who manages a textiles business, and Seema Gambhir, a housewife. Gambhir has a sister, Ekta, who is two years younger to him. You might not know but Gambhir's ancestors were used to living in Multan before partition, they came to Delhi in 1947 and he was adopted by his maternal grandparents eighteen days after his birth.

Gambhir started playing cricket at the age of 10. He received his schooling from Modern School, New Delhi and didn't pursue graduation. He stayed at his maternal uncle Pawan Gulati's residence in the '90s, whom he considers a mentor and would often call up before important matches. The Southpaw batter was coached by Sanjay Bharadwaj of Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in Delhi and Raju Tandon. 

After the 2011 World Cup victory, the left-hand batsman got married to Natasha Jain in October 2011, who belongs to a prominent business family. He currently resides in Delhi's Rajendra Nagar neighbourhood.

International and Political Career

Gambhir made his debut on 11 April 2003 against Bangladesh, one year before making his Test Debut for India against Aussies in 2004. The former Indian cricketer was known for his aggression and passion for the game, which we have seen in several games for Men in Blue weather it's a heated argument against Shahid Afridi or Kamran Akmal, his emotions were seen at the top for the nation, it shows his patriotic nature for the country, which is also one of the reasons that after taking retirement from international cricket he made his debut in Politics career from Bhartiya Janta Party as a Member of Parliament from East Delhi in 2019 Indian general elections Gautam won the elections by 695,109 votes against Atishi Marlena and Arvinder Singh Lovely.

Under his tenure as an MP, he installed air purifiers in his constituency. Gambhir donated his two-year salary as MP during COVID-19 pandemic. Gambhir through his foundation started COVID-19 vaccination camps in his constituency. You might not know, but in Gambhir's constituency, Delhi BJP performed well in 2020 Delhi legislative elections and 2022 Delhi MCD elections. However, On 2 March 2024, he announced his departure from politics and Bharatiya Janata Party. 

Despite being one of the best young batters in his time, the Delhi-born batsman has gone through several ups and downs in his cricketing career, where he was not selected for the 2007 World Cup as the selectors opted for a top-order of Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, and Sachin Tendulkar.

It affected him badly and Gambhir later said that "When I got dropped for the World Cup, there were times I didn't want to play anymore. I didn't want to practise. I couldn't motivate myself."

But as it has been said, great players know how to make a comeback and the former opening batter has no other career options apart from cricket after India's first-round exit from the tournament, Gambhir was selected for the One Day International on India's 2007 tour of Bangladesh. Knowing that the series could be his last chance, Gambhir scored his second century on that tour and was subsequently selected for the One Day International on India's tour to Ireland in 2007. He scored an unbeaten 80 against Ireland in the first game of that tour and was awarded the man of the match award for that effort. 

After that, Gambhir was selected in India's squad for the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, which India went on to win in South Africa, beating Pakistan in the final. Gambhir performed well in the shortest form of the game, ending the tournament as India's top run scorer, with 227 at an average of 37.83, including three half-centuries which included a crucial 75 runs off 54 balls against Pakistan in the final.

Gambhir's Golden Era

The 2007-08 year was a Golden year for the former Kolkata Knight Riders captain where he was seen in top-notch form for the Indian team he scored an unbeaten 102 at the Gabba against Sri Lanka in a match washed out due to rain before scoring his career best of 113 against Australia in Sydney.

In 2008 Gambhir finally solidified his place in the Indian Test team with a string of high scores. Opening the batting with Delhi teammate Virender Sehwag, he scored 858 runs at over 61 in seven matches as of December including a double century against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

After his brilliant performance, he was named as the ICC Test Player of the Year for 2009 and was briefly ranked the No. 1 batsman in the ICC rankings in July; at the time India were not playing Tests and his points rating did not change, but other batsmen who were ranked higher lost points before regaining them.

Gambhir again proved to everyone why he is called as the Unsung hero and the second wall in Indian cricket by playing a match-winning knock of 97 runs in the ICC Men's 2011 World Cup in the finals against Sri Lanka. Coming in to bat in the first over after the dismissal of Virender Sehwag, he anchored the Indian inning despite the early dismissal of both the openers. He had a good partnership first with Kohli and then a match-winning partnership of 109 runs with MS Dhoni.

Gautam Gambhir has been proud of India weather it's his contribution as a cricketer, politician or as a philanthropist. After announcing him as the head coach of the Indian national cricket team, we can see him taking Men in Blue to great heights in the coming years.