I trusted my instinct, it paid off: Gambhir

For those who saw Gautam Gambhir tear into the Shane Bond’s raw pace and make a majestic 51 off 33 balls at the Wanderers on Sunday...

For those who saw Gautam Gambhir tear into the Shane Bond’s raw pace and make a majestic 51 off 33 balls at the Wanderers on Sunday, it was just another reminder of what the 25-year-old is capable of. “I had always wanted to play as aggressively as I do in domestic games. Yesterday I got a chance to do that. I am naturally an aggressive batsman and love to play my shots. But you can’t always do that in international cricket. Yesterday was different and I trusted my instinct,” Gambhir told The Indian Express.

The knock should help him cement his place in Team India, but the Delhi-ite credits it to the big New Zealand total that forced him to go after the bowling. “To be honest, it was a blessing in disguise for me that the team had to chase a big total. I had the freedom to play my shots because we needed a good start. I hadn’t picked on one bowler particularly, it just happened to be Bond,” he gives out a mischievous smile. “We had to cash in on the circle rule,” he reveals.

Gambhir shies away when asked to comment on Daniel Vettori’s compliments. Vettori clubbed Virender Sehwag and Gambhir together “as two great batsmen,” admitting “Bond was getting clobbered and Gambhir looked more aggressive and dangerous” than his statemate in the Indian side. “It feels nice when you get a compliment like that but I don’t think I want to be compared with Sehwag. I am a huge fan of Sehwag, and I have adored his batting style. He’s one of my favourite batsmen and I can’t say that I am more aggressive than him,” he says modestly.

With an array of inside-out shots, the left-hander made a clinical assault on Bond and Mark Gillespie and he offers a simple explanation to his bang-bang theory. “I was playing a lot of inside-out shots because they were trying to take the ball away from me and it was easier and safer for me to get after them with that kind of shots.”

He feels he may be able to score a century in Twenty20, but is not thinking about it at present. “Pata nahi, shayad kabhi,” he says. But what was creditable of him was that such a knock happened after a duck on his Twenty20 debut. “Yes, there was some pressure. But the pressure of getting off to a good start in this crucial match was much more than that.”

Critics have branded Gambhir as someone who can succeed only against weaker opposition. On Sunday he showed what he is capable of as he did in the ODIs in England with two decent knocks. “I don’t want to say anything on that. I can only go and score whenever I get the opportunities. You fail in some and you succeed in some,” he states candidly.