NEW DELHI - Determined to fight his way back into the national Cricket team, Gautam Gambhir Wednesday said he would be happy grinding it out in the domestic circuit for long rather than using the Indian Premier League as a "platform" to make a "personal comeback". Once considered as Indian batting's mainstay, Gambhir now finds himself in cricketing wilderness owing to his indifferent form,
but the out-of-favour opener has not lost hopes of returning to international cricket and would be happily plying his trade in the Deodhar Trophy for North Zone and Kolkata Knights Riders in the IPL. "I will never use the IPL (as a platform). I will use the IPL as a platform to do well for my side KKR. What all matters to me is good showing for KKR. I don't play the IPL for my personal comebacks. I play IPL for my team and do well for them. Performing for KKR is all that is in back of my mind," Gambhir said.
"It's (domestic cricket) the stepping stone for making it to the Indian team. Till the time love for the game is there, I don't mind playing at any platform, be it domestic, IPL or the international cricket. I love the game and that's what really matters to me," Gambhir said. It's been more than a year since Gambhir last took guard in international game against England at Dharamsala in January 2013. Talking about Test cricket and T20s, it's been around 15 months for the southpaw.
The 31-year-old scored 578 runs in the Ranji Trophy this season with a top score of 153 against Haryana but failed to make the cut for the Test squad to South Africa. Gambhir also refused to set any time frame like Virender Sehwag before thinking about quitting the game. Sehwag had said that he still has 2-3 years of competitive cricket left in him before taking a decision on retirement. "I don't know. I have not thought about it. I don't look at for how long I am going to play. The day I feel like I can't contribute to the team's success, that's the day I am going to call it quits," he said. (PTI)
"It's (domestic cricket) the stepping stone for making it to the Indian team. Till the time love for the game is there, I don't mind playing at any platform, be it domestic, IPL or the international cricket. I love the game and that's what really matters to me," Gambhir said. It's been more than a year since Gambhir last took guard in international game against England at Dharamsala in January 2013. Talking about Test cricket and T20s, it's been around 15 months for the southpaw.
The 31-year-old scored 578 runs in the Ranji Trophy this season with a top score of 153 against Haryana but failed to make the cut for the Test squad to South Africa. Gambhir also refused to set any time frame like Virender Sehwag before thinking about quitting the game. Sehwag had said that he still has 2-3 years of competitive cricket left in him before taking a decision on retirement. "I don't know. I have not thought about it. I don't look at for how long I am going to play. The day I feel like I can't contribute to the team's success, that's the day I am going to call it quits," he said. (PTI)
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