Me and Virender Sehwag still the best opening combination: Gautam Gambhir

Indian left-hander Gautam Gambhir has hit back at the critics, saying that he and Virender Sehwag are still the best opening combination in the country. Both batsmen are under immense pressure following their recent lacklustre show with the bat, but Gambhir
believes an average of 53 is enough to give a shut-up call to the critics.

"We still average 53 as an opening pair, which I think is one of the best when it comes to opening the batting in world cricket. There are not many opening pairs who have played for such a long time and have an average of 53 per innings. And if 53 is not
good enough, I don’t know what is good enough," said Gambhir.

"As an opening pair, you average 50 per inning and if you are giving 50 runs start in every innings, you can’t do more and if people talk about not contributing, I will suggest them to look at the stats. Average of 53 is tremendous, its something a lot of opening
pairs have not done in the past and are not doing today," he added.

Sehwag, in particular, is going through a lean patch. In the last couple of years, the aggressive right-hander has scored only century, and averaged just over-37, which is a lot lower than his career average of 50.64. Likewise, Gambhir is not enjoying any
good form these days. His average during the last two years is not good at all.

When asked whether he is under some pressure not having made a Test hundred during last couple of years, Gambhir replied: "It’s not about scoring a hundred everytime, it’s about contributing when you are opening the batting. It’s not only me, a lot of other
people have also not scored tons.”

"People only discuss about scoring a hundred, I don’t know why. I got 93 in South Africa, 85-odd in Australia…15 or seven more and people would not be discussing my hundred. It’s about how much you can contribute when you open the batting. For me, it is
all about contributing to the cause of the team."

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=34487

Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Oct 25 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry