“I Believe I Ended His Career”: Mohammad Irfan on Gautam Gambhir’s White-ball Career

Gautam Gambhir, the fomer India player is considereded as one of the best limited-overs cricketers in India. Gambhir has played 147 ODIs for India, in which he scored 5,238 runs including 11 hundreds and 34 fifties. He also played 37 T20Is, and was an integral part of India?s squad in the T20I World Cup win back in 2007 as well.

He was one of the vital cog for india in the 2011 World Cup final against Sri Lanka, where he scored 97 to help India lift the title. But Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Irfan claimed that he was the reason behind the end to Gautam Gambhir?s white-ball career.

In a recent interview, Irfan recalled how Gautam Gambhir faced trouble while batting against him during the 2012 bilateral series which literally finished his white-ball career. Standing tall at 7ft 1 inch, Irfan dismissed Gambhir four times during that series (T20Is and ODIs) and he played only one more white-ball series for India against England before being dropped out from the squad. Gambhir even last played in T20 format for India against Pakistan at Ahmedabad in that series.

“When I played against India, they were not comfortable batting against me. Some of them told me in the 2012 series in India that they couldn?t sight my ball properly because of my height and also didn?t read my pace,” Mohammad Irfan told the ‘Samaa’ channel.

“He (Gambhir) didn?t like to face me in match or when both teams had nets, I always felt he avoided eye to eye contact with me. I remember I got out him four times in the 2012 limited over series and he was unnerved against me,” Irfan furthr added. “I believe I ended his career. He did not play many more matches after that series.”

He even shared in the interview that India captain Virat Kohli had told him that he didn?t read his pace properly while batting against him.

“He told me he thought I would be around 130-135 kph but I had increased my pace and I was bowling around 145 kph and he had problems picking me up. Once when he was batting he tried to pull a good length ball and missed. Yuvraj (Singh), who was at the other end told him in Punjabi. Don?t try to pull him, rather try to cut him. Off my third ball, he went for a pull and was caught behind. Yuvi Paji told him… now go back,” Irfan recalled.