Gautam Gambhir was one of the heroes of India’s 2011 World Cup win, especially in the final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, where he scored 97 to stabilize the innings after India lost Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag early.
The left-hander scored 393 runs in 9 innings for India in the 2011 World Cup with 4 half-centuries to his name at an average of 43.66.
During an interview with Boria Majumdar for RevSportz, Gambhir revealed that he felt no pressure coming into the World Cup final in 2011 given that he had scored runs before in the tournament.
“Playing the World Cup final was not pressure. I had run behind me, I was doing something I liked doing, and I was confident of doing well. In fact, even when we lost two wickets, I did not have a single negative thought. All I was focused on was playing the next ball. That’s what it is about. Just play the next ball and don’t look too far ahead. If you do, that’s when you build pressure on yourself. If you just play the next ball, you know you are in control. And that’s what I did in the 2011 final. Honestly, I did not feel pressure nor did I have negative thoughts when we were two down,” Gambhir told Boria Majumdar for RevSportz.
He was then asked how important was the 2011 World Cup in the context of his career.
Gambhir answered: “The 2011 World Cup win was the most important win of my career. I had missed out on playing in the 2007 World Cup, and I still feel it was wrong that I was left out. I still don’t know why I was left out despite doing well, and the 2011 World Cup was the only 50-over World Cup that I played. So I have the unique distinction of winning the only 50-over World Cup that I participated in. In 2007, the T20 format wasn’t the format of choice. Yes, we won, but it was not the format we all excelled at.
The 50-over World Cup was different. On home soil, the 2011 World Cup was the tournament that all of India was looking forward to. We had not won a 50-over World Cup for 28 years, and in every sense, it was a very special occasion. To be able to do well for my team was a very satisfying thing for me, and will surely rank as one of the highest points in my career.”
Gambhir also revealed that while he celebrated the win with the Indian team for a short while, he was too physically exhausted to do anything more.
“I don’t think people realize that I was on the ground for literally 92 overs of the final. No one else among all the players was out there for that long. First, we fielded, and then when we batted, I was out there batting for 41-42 overs of our innings. The truth is, after I got out and went back to the changing room, I was exhausted. Drained completely. So, while I was massively happy and emotionally invested in the celebrations, physically I was exhausted.
We had a team celebration late in the night, and while I went there for a few minutes, I just came to my room and crashed. I did nothing else because I was fatigued. However, when I went home the next day, it was a very proud moment with family. Seeing my mother so happy was very pleasing. It was a very touching celebration at home, and I felt good seeing the smiles on people’s faces,” Gambhir said.
