2011 World Cup 10th anniversary: Gautam Gambhir recalls the hour before ICC World Cup 2011 final with Insidesport: He had probably played the most defining and remembered innings by any Indian cricketer in an ICC World Cup final — scripting India’s historic victory in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium — exactly 10 years back.
And as the nation celebrates the 10th anniversary of that glorious and unforgettable night, Inside Sport tried to capture what exactly was going on in man of the match Gautam Gambhir’s mind just an hour before the finals.
“I was just thinking about the first ball I would face from the bowler. One of the things I had learnt over a period of time is to take the occasion out of an event. I left the hype of a World Cup final in our hotel room,” Gambhir recalled the hour with Inside Sport in an exclusive interview on Friday.
When asked how he still remembered the World Cup journey and the triumph, Gambhir said: “It was a dream come true for every one of us. Personally, it was my first 50-over World Cup and it finished into a title win which seemed surreal. I have always felt that someone was writing my script and the 2011 World Cup win was a beautiful chapter in that. I am thankful to God that I got this opportunity to play some part in India winning the Cup. I am not sure if we did anything special. We were picked to do a job and we did it, that is how I see it. I’d only like to say that it was a good night for us in Mumbai. But many more such wins are needed.”
2011 World Cup 10th anniversary: – Gambhir, who scored 97 runs in the finals against Sri Lanka, believes in team effort and not in attaching too much importance to individual heroics. He has made it clear in the past that one knock or one six cannot win a team a World Cup title. He also understands not be live in the past and move ahead.
“The other half of me now feels that we need to move on from that day now and start thinking about winning the next multi-nation tournament. I don’t want to get into a debate about how we fare at the Olympics but if cricket is giving us a sporting identity in a few nations then it needs to be strengthened further. We can not rest on past laurels,” he observed.