Adam Gilchrist, Australia’s vice-captain and batsman/stumper extraordinary, has been brought down to earth with a thud and he now knows why this game is called a great leveller.
After having a stupendous run of last 16 Tests, Gilchrist now knows the taste of defeat. He also is better acquainted with the feeling of having a first-batting king’s pair in batting.
The tall wicketkeeper-batsman had a rough decision in the first innings when the ball surely had pitched outside the leg-stump but this time the fast-spinning leg break of Sachin Tendulkar left no-one in doubt he was out.
’’I’ve never had a pair in my life, leave alone a king pair, ’’ said Gilchrist ’’But strangely, Justin Langer asked me just last week if I’d ever had a pair.’’
Until Gilchrist’s career hit a pothole in Kolkata, he had only experienced wins-15 of them on the trot since replacing Ian Healy behind the stumps in the first Test of the 1999-00 season at Brisbane.
He found Test defeat no worse to stomach than any other kind of loss
’’It feels exactly the same as any other loss I’ve ever had in my career - very, very disappointing, ’’ Gilchrist said.
’’It was inevitable that this team was going to lose at some stage and it was inevitable I was going to lose a Test match - so I don’t feel any more disappointed than anyone else in the team.’’
Gilchrist said despite the disappointing loss, his team was looking forward to the Chennai Test. ’’I feel we’re good enough to come back from here, ’’ he said.
’’We’ve answered a lot of challenges in the past 18 months and now it’s a terrific challenge for us to win in Chennai.
’’The guys are actually looking forward to it.’’
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------