Statistically Gauti

Gautam Gambhir has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

Once thought to be an ideal partner for Virender Sehwag, and a player with potential to have a long run, Gambhir lost the way somewhere. A regular in the scheme of things for Indian cricket till 2012, he was discarded for loss of form, and subsequently dropped. He was there and thereabouts, but never came with a strong case for inclusion. The four tests that he played, two in 2014 and two in 2016 never took him up. The emergence of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan also didn't do him any big favors.

Let's look at how his career went. 

Gambhir played 58 tests, 147 ODI and 37 T20I for India. He was the top scorer for India in both the World Cup finals which India eventually won, the T20I World Cup in South Africa 2007 and the ICC ODI World Cup in India 2011. In both these finals, he was the main batsman around whom others played. In the WC-2011 finals, Dhoni was able to get going only because he had a solid Gambhir at the other end when he walked in.

Career Stats.
Tests-Matches (58), Innings (104), Runs (4154), Average (41.96), Hundreds (9), Fifties (22), HS (206)
ODI-Matches (147), Innings (143), Runs (5238), Average (39.68), Hundreds (11), Fifties (34), HS (150)
T20I-Matches (37), Innings (36), Runs (932), Average (27.41), Hundreds (0), Fifties (7), HS (75)

Gambhir's test career can be broken down into five phases.
Phase 1 is his initial career, the first five tests in 2004, when he was coming up the ranks.
Phase 2 was his phase of slump, year 2005 when he was struggling to score runs and got dropped eventually.
Phase 3 is his return to the team in 2007, close to his brilliant performances in the T20 World Cup.
Phase 4 is another slump, including two rather forgettable series in England and Australia. Finally, Phase 5, a rather inconsequential odd recalls, nothing serious to state that he was in contention.

Gambhir started his test career in 2004, in the Mumbai test against Australia. That match was a low scoring one, with India winning by 13 runs, dismissing Australia for 93 runs in the fourth innings.
From there on, Gambhir played in 13 consecutive tests for India till end of 2005.
He scored his first test hundred against Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2004 series. But a string of low scores in the next 8 tests, where he could score only 377 runs from 14 innings at an average of 31.42 with just two fifties. He failed in the series against Sri Lanka where his highest score was 30 from 5 attempts.

From there, he didn't play a single test in 2006 and most of 2007.

It was around that time that Wasim Jaffer made a comeback to the team. Jaffer played through 2006 and 2007.

Gambhir, however, was a regular in the ODI and T20I formats. It was in 2007 that the World Cup for T20I was launched, and Gambhir was a star performer. Gambhir scored 227 runs in the World Cup, with 3 fifites including the crucial 75 in the finals. He also scored a hundred and 3 fiftes in 23 ODI matches, scoring 580 runs at 33.

2008 marked a comeback for Gambhir, when his career took an upturn. This is where his Phase 3 begins.
On his return to the team, India played Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, the team which caused Gambhir to go out. Gambhir did reasonably well in that series, scoring 310 runs in 3 tests, including twin fifties at Galle providing support to Sehwag (who scored 201 NO, out of 329 in the first innings) helping India win the test. The series went to Sri Lanka, 2-1.
The next series against Australia at home helped Gambhir cement his place, when he scored 463 runs in 3 tests, including a hundred and his lone double. He was there to stay longer.
In this Phase 3, on his return to the team, he played a total of 25 tests, scoring 2550 runs at an average of close to 58, with 8 hundreds and 13 fifties.

Then came another slump, curiously, at the same time when he was leading India to another World Cup title. Gambhir had a poor outing in England in 2011, a series which India lost 0-4. Gambhir scored 102 runs in 6 innings, with a highest score of 38. Further failures against Australia in Australia (181 runs in 8 innings) where India lost again 0-4 meant that there were serious questions asked on his ability to score. Two rather silent home series in India against New Zealand and the arrival or Murali Vijay (Dhawan too) hastened his move out of reckoning.

He was picked up in four more tests, more due to injuries to regular openers.
How did he fare against the top teams of his time?

Against Australia
Gambhir had his good times and bad times against the Aussies. Most of Gambhir's matches against Australia have been played in India, except for the 2012 disastrous tour. The home series in 2008 saw Gambhir scoring 463 runs at 77.17, two hundreds and a fifty in 3 test matches, also reaching his highest score of 206. He was also the highest aggregate scorer in the series. If we take that off, we see 210 runs from 5 tests with an average of 21.

Against England
Gambhir played two series in England, both of them hardly paid off. It a total of 5 tests played against England in England, his returns were 127 runs at 12.70. But, like against Australia, he had one good series at home in 2008, when he scored 361 runs in 2 tests at an average of 90.25.
Against South Africa

Against South Africa
Gambhir has better record in South Africa than he has in India against them. In the series in 2011, when India drew the series 1-1, Gambhir scored 242 runs at 60.50. But he had a dismal home series in 2010, where he could score only 38 runs in 3 innings.

Medium strong teams - Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies
The high point of Gambhir's career also coincides with the three series in 2008 and 2009, against Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In the series against Sri Lanka in SL, Gambhir scored 310 runs at 51.67, against New Zealand in NZ, he scored 445 runs at 89 (2 hundreds) and in the next home series against Sri Lanka, he scored 282 runs at 94 (2 hundreds). Apart from these three, there is nothing much to write about.
Against minnows - Bangladesh and Zimbabwe
In the six tests that Gambhir has played against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, he has a healthy average of 75.

Partnerships
Gambhir was involved in 23 century partnerships, 11 of them with Sehwag (including 2 double hundred partnerships). He was also involved in a partnership of 314 with Rahul Dravid against England at Mohali in 2008.


In general, Gambhir is not strictly an Asia specialist, he has good records in South Africa and New Zealand. However, his records aren't great in Australia and England, which caused his career. He also was hot-cold against Sri Lanka, couple of good series sandwiched between two bad ones.

Finally, what was Gautam Gambhir? An extremely talented batsman who failed to deliver? Or an average batsman who enjoyed small strokes of golden form?

I don't know. I just know it's time to say good bye to Gambhir. Whatever people say about his game, one thing remains, his contributions to India winning two World Cups.
Enjoy, Gauti...