Hitting Rock Bottom: The woeful saga of Gautam Gambhir

“Conquering the demons in your mind is the first step to redemption.” – SC

That most renowned of writers and motivational experts, Napoleon Hill, once stated that when a man loses every single battle he fights in and hits rock bottom, he becomes ready to change: to go on the offensive once again – and win.

Hill’s words resonate true even to this day, but the echoes are yet to emanate from the blade of one of Indian cricket’s best ever opening batsmen.

Gautam Gambhir, once the bête noire of most bowling attacks and one of the chief architects of India’s two World Cup wins (in 2007 and 2011), looks nothing but a pale shadow of himself today. The feet aren’t moving as well as they should, and the willow looks more like a toddler’s little plastic bat. The end result: his side are a man down even before they have put any runs on the board.

I suspect that there are more than just the usual burdens of captaincy clouding Gambhir’s thought processes at the moment. Strategies, on-field tactics, preparing for the tougher challenges ahead – all of those seem to be secondary to the key issue bothering him.

Something that he earlier used to thrive on has now become a major albatross around his neck.

Something has numbed his reflexes, leaving him to cut a sorry figure back to the dugout after being dismissed.

Pressure – of expectations, of staying true to his belief of a national comeback and of letting his bat do the talking – seems to have done him in. It’s that plain and simple.

That single word is enough to snuff out the fire kindled by hope.

Most unfortunately for the Knight Riders, their leader has succumbed to this malaise at the most inopportune time. Though the likes of Jacques Kallis, Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn and Suryakumar Yadav have kept the side’s head above water, the skipper has hardly contributed much to the three outings so far.

Don’t get me wrong; I still believe Gautam is the best bet to lead the side. His technical deficiencies may have been a huge factor in his early dismissals, but it is the mental framework that I’m most concerned about. He just doesn’t seem to have his heart in the fight anymore. Like former England maverick Kevin Pietersen, Gambhir seems to have detached himself from the on-field proceedings. His reactions are more mechanical than instinctive, and his fiery demeanour all but replaced with one of desperation.

And as a supporter of the purple-and-gold outfit, I am horrified at the drastic changes Gambhir is going through.

What’s worse is that his desperation to get out of the rut is so great that he’s doing what is extremely dangerous: trying to hit his way out of trouble. Now, on certain occasions, that move will pay off handsomely. But if it is done half-heartedly, then it can only lead to disaster and more frustration for the batsman. Unfortunately, in Gambhir’s case, the latter has proven to be true. How else do you explain playing the leg-side flick to a rising delivery very early in your innings when you haven’t even got used to the pace of the wicket?

One noticeable flaw that I see in his technique is his habit of shuffling and playing across to deliveries pitched in line with the stumps, at about yorker length or slightly fuller. As a result, he has to reach out to play them and is either bowled or trapped in front of them 80 percent of the time. In such situations, he has to play them with a straight bat, with soft hands; although with yorkers bowled at the pace that someone like Lasith Malinga or Dale Steyn generate, this will be hard to do. Whatever it is, a few net sessions with the quicks should help Gambhir iron out that particular chink in his armour. The mental aspect will follow.

I’ve always associated the word ‘fire’ with certain individuals who play their cricket hard, who are able to channel their aggression into raising their game to higher levels and whose passion for the game leads them to perform extraordinary feats. More important, however, is the fact that they play freely and enjoy it. Glenn Maxwell seems to be having a lot of fun, while old warhorse Virender Sehwag looked in his elements the other night, as well.

It is high time Gambhir examines his reasons for playing cricket, and I hope the demons within his mind vanish soon. Once he rediscovers and reignites his lifelong passion for the game which he has excelled at in all formats, there will be no looking back. Like Apollo Creed once said to Rocky Balboa, “You got to get the Eye of the Tiger back.”

Bring back the fire, Gambhir, and lead your team to greater heights.