On October 14, 1981, former Team India opener Gautam Gambhir was born to Deepak and Seema Gambhir in New Delhi, India. Gambhir started playing cricket at the age of 10 and after nine years of his diligence, he was selected for the first intake of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore in 2000. Earlier, in 1999, he made his First-Class debut for Delhi. The next year, he also broke into List A cricket. His maiden international appearance came in April 2003, with the match between India and Bangladesh in Dhaka. In November 2004, he was also handed his Test debut against Australia in Mumbai.
In 2007, India won the T20 World Cup 2007 under MS Dhoni’s leadership and Gambhir made a crucial contribution of 75 (54) from his bat in the final against
Pakistan in Johannesburg. In 2009, India won the Test series on New Zealand soil and Gambhir ended up as the highest run-getter in the competition. Gambhir is also known for his magnificent 97-run knock against Sri Lanka in the Cricket World Cup 2011 final played in Mumbai. In 2018, he retired from all forms of cricket after delivering his services to India for 13 years from 2003 to 2016.
Gautam Gambhir’s IPL career and his ongoing stint as Team India coach
Gautam Gambhir captainedKolkata Knight Riders (KKR) from 2011 to 2017, and during this period, he also guided the side to a couple of titles (2012 and 2014). In 2024, he returned to KKR as mentor and this time, allying with captain Shreyas Iyer, he delivered another title to Kolkata. 
Currently, he is Team India’s head coach and under his guidance and Rohit Sharma’s sensational captaincy, India won the Champions Trophy 2025, held in Dubai and Pakistan. After retiring from the sport, Gambhir was also active in politics from 2019 to 2024. Contesting on BJP’s ticket in the Lok Sabha elections, he defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s Atishi Marlena and Congress’s Arvinder Singh Lovely.
