reached got to his 41st First Class hundred on Saturday in Delhi’s Ranji match against Karnataka. Delhi are presented with the daunting task of having to chase down Karnataka’s first innings total of 649 and have lost three wickets so far. Gambhir opened the innings with Unmukt Chand. The latter got dismissed on 16 by Stuart Binny, who himself had managed a century in Karnataka’s innings. 25-year-old Dhruv Shorey then stuck on with Gambhir and the two put up a 110 run partnership for the second wicket.
Shorey was later dismissed by Mithun while Nitish Rana was sent back to the hut by Binny. Since then, Rishab Pant and Gambhir have held the Delhi innings. Gambhir is the third man to score a century in this match after Karnataka’s Mayank Agarwal scored 176 and Stuart Binny scored 118. Rishabh Pant will be looking to boost his prospects to gain an international cap with a good innings.
Gambhir, on the other hand, has slim chances of making it back into the Indian team. The likes of KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane have all been performing consistently well for India in limited overs. Murali Vijay, who has been a mainstay for India at the top of the order in Test cricket, has been recalled to the team that play Sri Lanka after a long layoff due to injury. Gambhir had last played an ODI for India in 2013 and his last international T20 came a year before that. He was called up to play for India in the Test series against England in 2016 due to injuries to KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan. Gambhir was played in the first Test and managed 29 and 0 in the two innings.