"Step out to his googly"
Gautam Gambhir, India batsman
I just played him as a bowler - not as a particular kind of bowler, a spin bowler or seam bowler. I didn't think a lot about what I would do against him. That makes it difficult. Whatever he threw at me, I reacted accordingly. He has a lot of variety, so it is important when he delivers that you react to it.
Gautam Gambhir, India batsman
I just played him as a bowler - not as a particular kind of bowler, a spin bowler or seam bowler. I didn't think a lot about what I would do against him. That makes it difficult. Whatever he threw at me, I reacted accordingly. He has a lot of variety, so it is important when he delivers that you react to it.
His variations are the googly, the legspinner, the offspinner and the carrom ball. He bowls two different googlies: the slower googly bounces much more, while the quickish one deviates a little bit.
I try to read him from his hand. Once it pitches it is difficult to judge and it gets really late and you can't score runs. If you can pick him from the hand you can react and look for scoring opportunities. It wasn't that difficult to pick him from his hand.
His greatest strength is that he is pretty accurate and very wicket-to-wicket. And he doesn't spin the ball a long way, so it is difficult to attack him or take runs.
You can only step out once you start picking him. His offspinner and the carrom balls are quick in the air, so it's difficult to step out against those. On the other hand the googly is pretty slow, so you can try and step out against it.
In Test cricket it is difficult because he can bowl long spells of 25-odd overs, so you need to be watchful. In ODIs guys have scored runs - you can try and accumulate runs, try and play in the gaps. In Test cricket you have to really play very good shots to create gaps, because most of the fielders are around you.