“I realised that he could be my go-to man to work on my game”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Almost 12 months after playing his last Test for India, opening batsman Gautam Gambhir has had enough of sitting idly by on the sidelines and has decided to take action in order to resurrect his international career.

Gambhir can be found in Perth these days training under the watchful eye of former Australia opener and current Western Australia coach Justin Langer, who scored 23 Test centuries in 105 Test matches.

Gambhir was given an opportunity to revive his Test career during India’s tour of England last year, but he failed miserably in the two Tests he played as he only managed to muster scores of 4, 18, 0 and 3 in his four innings. Having failed to impress anyone at all, the national selectors decided to throw him back into the wilderness.

The 33-year-old was initially dropped from India’s Test team after they were beaten 2-1 at home by England in November-December 2012. However, many people argued that Gambhir’s removal from the Test team was a harsh move, especially since he made 251 runs at an average of 41.83 in the four Tests.

To add insult to injury, Gambhir was dropped from the ODI squad a month later and was snubbed when India’s 30-man list of probables for the World Cup was announced earlier this year.

“I met JL [Langer] during the last Champions League last year when he was touring with Perth Scorchers as their coach,” Gambhir said. “We spoke about a few things, about my batting, and I realised that he could be my go-to man to work on my game.

“I’d read Langer’s interviews and his books. I could relate to him a lot. He too is an intense character like me and these things pushed me to come here.”

However, Gambhir’s work with Langer does not solely consist of batting as he is also doing gymnastics and martial arts sessions with the rest of the Western Australia players.

“The entire thing is beautifully married into the cricket programme and there is logic in what these guys do,” Gambhir said. “After taking part in these sessions I understood that gymnastics was focused at helping the boys improve their fielding by making them do various stretches and martial arts was trained at bettering the footwork and agility of the players.”