The Little Ganesha ®: How much you know about Adam Gilchrist

Full name Adam Craig Gilchrist

Born November 14, 1971, Bellingen, New South Wales

Current age 39 years 61 days

Major teams Australia, Deccan Chargers, ICC World XI, Middlesex, New South Wales, Western Australia

Nickname Gilly, Churchy

Playing role Wicketkeeper batsman

Batting style Left-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Fielding position Wicketkeeper

Height 1.86 m

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	96	137	20	5570	204*	47.60	6796	81.95	17	26	677	100	379	37
ODIs	287	279	11	9619	172	35.89	9922	96.94	16	55	1162	149	417	55
T20Is	13	13	1	272	48	22.66	192	141.66	0	0	27	13	17	0
First-class	190	280	46	10334	204*	44.16			30	43			756	55
List A	356	343	19	11326	172	34.95			18	63			526	65
Twenty20	68	68	2	1773	109*	26.86	1202	147.50	2	9	193	92	48	19

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	96	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
ODIs	287	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
T20Is	13	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
First-class	190	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
List A	356		12	10	0	-	-	-	5.00	-	0	0	0
Twenty20	68	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Career statistics

Test debut	Australia v Pakistan at Brisbane, Nov 5-9, 1999 scorecard
Last Test	Australia v India at Adelaide, Jan 24-28, 2008 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	Australia v South Africa at Faridabad, Oct 25, 1996 scorecard
Last ODI	Australia v India at Brisbane, Mar 4, 2008 scorecard
ODI statistics
T20I debut	New Zealand v Australia at Auckland, Feb 17, 2005 scorecard
Last T20I	Australia v India at Melbourne, Feb 1, 2008 scorecard
T20I statistics
First-class debut	1992/93
Last First-class	Australia v India at Adelaide, Jan 24-28, 2008 scorecard
List A debut	1992/93
Last List A	Middlesex v Australians at Lord's, Jun 19, 2010 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	New Zealand v Australia at Auckland, Feb 17, 2005 scorecard
Last Twenty20	Middlesex v Kent at Lord's, Jun 24, 2010 scorecard

Profile

Going in first or seventh, wearing whites or coloureds, Adam Gilchrist was the symbolic heart of Australia's steamrolling agenda and the most exhilarating cricketer of the modern age. He was simultaneously a cheerful throwback to more innocent times, a flap-eared country boy who walked when given not out in a World Cup semi-final, and swatted his second ball for six while sitting on a Test pair. "Just hit the ball," is how he once described his philosophy on batting, and he seldom strayed from it. Employing a high-on-the-handle grip, he poked good balls into gaps and throttled most others, invariably with head straight, wrists soft and balance sublime. Only at the death did he jettison the textbook, whirling his bat like a hammer-thrower, caring only for the scoreboard and never his average. Still he managed to score at a tempo - 81 per 100 balls in Tests, 96 in one-dayers - that made Viv Richards and Gilbert Jessop look like stick-in-the-muds.

When he signed a record A$2m sponsorship deal with Puma in 2004, few people questioned his value for money. Indeed it was arguably Gilchrist's belated Test arrival that turned the Australian XI from powerful to overpowering. He bludgeoned 81 on debut, pouched five catches and a stumping, and barely paused for breath until stepping down in 2008. Only in the closing stages of an untouchable career did his appetite slow - he was troubled by Andrew Flintoff's around-the-wicket angle during 2005 and found the flaw difficult to overcome - and his match-turning 144 against Bangladesh in April 2006 was his first century in 16 Tests.

The 2006-07 Ashes series was literally hit and miss, with three single-figure scores, two fifties and his most brutal hundred. At home his one-day form was subdued, but the game's biggest competition - and it's most important match - brought out Gilchrist's highest standards. He stole the World Cup final from Sri Lanka with 149 off 104 balls, slamming 13 fours and eight sixes, and added to his 54 and 57 from his previous two global triumphs. Using a tip from his batting coach Bob Meuleman, he put a squash ball in his glove to allow him to hit straighter - the advice should have been patented instantly.

In Tests, three Gilchrist innings rank among the most amazing by Australians: his death-defying unbeaten 149 against Pakistan at Hobart when all seemed lost, his savage and emotional 204 not out against South Africa at Johannesburg, and his 57-delivery Ashes century at Perth when he missed equalling Richards' world mark by a ball. In one-dayers, his 172 is the third-highest score by an Australian and his 472 dismissals might take decades to top.

As Australia's 41st Test captain he found the extra burden tiring, and was happy for Ricky Ponting to step in once Steve Waugh retired. But as Ponting's fill-in he crossed the final frontier, leading Australia to their first series win in India for 35 years in 2004-05. As a wicketkeeper he lacked Rod Marsh's acrobatics and Ian Healy's finesse, and he probably peaked at 30 in 2002. But if he clutched few screamers he dropped even fewer sitters, although one easy offering in Adelaide convinced him it was time to go. During that match against India he briefly became the leading gloveman in Test cricket by overtaking Mark Boucher, then the following day announced his retirement from all cricket but the Indian Premier League.
Cricinfo staff September 2008

Timeline

October 25, 1996
Badly begun is half done
- Makes his ODI debut at the age of 24. Scores 18 batting at No. 7, and grabs two catches in the loss to South Africa in Faridabad.

April 5, 1997
Move up, move right
- Replaces the struggling captain Mark Taylor as a specialist batsman during the ODI tour of South Africa. Shows the first glimpse at international level of his batting potential, striking 77 from 88 balls in Durban.

January 23, 1998
Opening with an open mind
- Is promoted by Steve Waugh to open the batting in the one-day team, and in just his second match in the new role strikes 100 from 104 deliveries to guide Australia to a comfortable win over South Africa at the SCG.

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Best Performances

149* v Pakistan, Hobart, 1999-2000
- Gilchrist has yet to completely win over the Australian fans, after having replaced their favourite Ian Healy in the side. And in only his second Test, he walks in at 126 for 5, with 243 more required to win the match. The Pakistan attack - Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib - is charged up, but has little idea what is about to hit them. What follows is one of the great counterattacks. Gilchrist and Justin Langer combine for 238 in 59 overs, as Langer falls just before Australia reach the target. Gilchrist's unbeaten 149 take just 163 deliveries, and feature 13 fours and a six. Steve Waugh later says, "He looks like he is playing in his own backyard." It is the first of many times that Gilchrist would turn a game on its head.

204* v South Africa, Johannesburg, 2001-02
- This is a special innings not only for the sadism Gilchrist treats South Africa with, but for the time it comes at. Gilchrist has been a victim of a vicious internet rumour, and he lets the emotional side of him come out when he cries after reaching one of many milestones in the innings. Still, he has toyed around with South Africa so brutally that Wisden describes the innings thus: "Gilchrist was playing with them like a cat keeping a half-dead mouse alive for entertainment."

The rockbottom for the helpless South African bowlers comes when he decides to go for an advertising hoarding offering a bar of gold, worth 1.3 million rand, for a direct hit. The billboard is 30 feet in the air, and well behind the deep mid-wicket boundary. But Gilchrist aims to hit Neil McKenzie goldwards, jumping up and down as the ball makes it way towards the hoarding. He misses by a couple of feet, but enough damage has been done by then as that shot takes him to 175. Gilchrist reaches 200 with his 19th four from his 212th delivery. It is the quickest double-century at the time.

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Cricinfo picks - Our top articles on this player

Adam Gilchrist (2002)
Adam Gilchrist had never been so nervous at the start of a Test as he was at Edgbaston last summer
Craftsman and cavalier (Jan 26, 2008)
Every significant passing produces a hundred memories. Adam Gilchrist's also brings forth a hundred smiles
Robust, ruthless, riveting (Feb 15, 2008)
Few bat with his sense of abandon and certainty, or his way of reducing cricket to its essentials
Adam the revolutionary (Mar 4, 2008)
Gilchrist's greatest contribution was the way he changed how the world looked at wicketkeepers
An opponent you love to love (Jan 27, 2008)
Spectators around Australia have roared for Sachin Tendulkar over the past month, but those were whispers compared to the reception reserved for Adam Gilchrist's final Test appearance