After the forgettable tour of England, CLT20 2014 is now Gautam Gambhir’s last chance to make a comeback, before the World Cup. Gautam Gambhir will be leading Kolkata Knight Riders in the CLT20 this year. Gambhir has been in a horrible batting form and his chances of making a comeback in the national side are looking very bleak.
Gambhir’s career took a dramatic turn after the 2011 World Cup. His form started dropping and since then, he has been struggling to get it right. When it started, many thought it’s just a bad patch that every cricketer has to go through. But now, this bad patch which seems never ending, there are serious questions regarding Gambhir’s temperament and technique.
With World Cup 2015 just around the corner, Gambhir must perform in the CLT20 2014, if he wants to put any pressure on the selectors for a spot in the national team. In the last edition of the Indian Premier League that KKR won, Gautam Gambhir couldn’t contribute much with his bat. He looked clueless against fast and swinging deliveries.
It would be unfair to say that Gambhir is just going through a bad phase. As someone who has followed his career very closely, I can say that Gambhir is not the one who will give up very soon. But, the question arises is- what is he doing to get better? In my opinion, he shouldn’t have been picked for the Test series. There are major technical flaws in his batting plagued with low level of confidence that aren’t allowing Gambhir to break the shackles and come out of this bad patch. I agree it’s important to spent some time in the middle, but it’s also very important to rectify the previous errors.
In the upcoming CLT20, all eyes will be on Gautam Gambhir as this is going to be last chance to impress the selectors before the World Cup. Gambhir has always been a big match player and his experience will add more value to Team India’s World Cup campaign. But for this to happen, Gambhir will have to be at the top of his game in CLT20 2014. It will require a monumental effort to overcome what he has gone through in the last 2 years or so.
With a whole bunch of young cricketers pushing each other for a place in the national squad, it’s not going to be easy for Gambhir. But, having said this, Gambhir, because of experience and numbers, will get more preference if he can lift his game and get his run-scoring touch back.
It would be just fair to say that CLT20 2014 will decide Gautam Gambhir’s future as far as his World Cup dreams are concerned.
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