Ashwin also hailed Gambhir as the greatest team man.
However, veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin feels Gambhir is the "most misunderstood cricketer" in the country.
Hailing Gambhir as the greatest team man, Ashwin also added that the left-handed opener gets very little credit for his immense contributions to Indian cricket.
“Gautam Gambhir is the most misunderstood cricketer in India. He is the greatest team man, the greatest individual to take the fight on. He is a nice guy. He is in your face. He might not be too expressive, but he is out there wanting a fight, wanting a battle. He is not only a fantastic player of spin, he was a great reader of the game,” Ashwin told Harsha Bhogle in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
Gambhir played a match-winning knock of 97 runs in the 2011 World Cup final against Sri Lanka, which helped India win the coveted trophy after 28 years.
“It was not just the knock in the final of the 2011 World Cup. There have been great knocks leading into the final, where Gautam has been an unsung hero. That final, when we were 2 down, and Virat got out caught and bowled to Dilshan, from there on Gautam literally did not allow the pressure to get to him. The kind of shots he played, the running between the wickets, the chances he took. Selfless! I would have said that he would have been 120, 130 not out..but selfless, I think he wanted to shut the game off. I have always had massive respect for the man. People just give him much lesser credit than he deserves,” Ashwin added.
Gautam Gambhir represented the country in 58 Tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is, amassing over 10,000 runs and 20 centuries across formats. He also played a key role in India’s 2007 T20 World Cup triumph.