Indian cricketing fraternity lauds Gautam Gambhir after his victory in the General Elections

Even a year ago, Gautam Gambhir was a part of the Delhi Daredevils, now Capitals, in the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He had a tough time over there and was finally released by the franchise. He came back and played some impactful knocks in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. However, in December, he decided to give his career a new direction and announced his retirement from cricket.

He reminisced the journey and later bowed out playing against Andra in the Ranji Trophy in front of his home crowd at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. Thereafter, speculations surrounding him joining politics came to the fore. But there wasn’t any confirmation about the move. In the end, the 37-year-old veteran cleared the air and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Gautam Gambhir roars to glory

Later, it was known that he would be contesting the Lok Sabha polls from the East Delhi constituency. He was pitted against Congress’ Arvind Singh Lovely and Aam Admi Party’s (AAP) Atishi. Riding on the wave in favour of PM Modi and the BJP, Gambhir has amassed 6,96,156 votes that translate to 55.3 per cent of the overall votes and beat his opponents’ hands down. Lovely had 3,04,934 votes and Atishi got 2,19,328 of them.

Narendra Modi also got a chance to become India’s Prime Minister second term after having won the honours back in 2014. As far as Gambhir is concerned, he was a warrior on the cricket pitch with a go-getter attitude in his career. And, the Delhi-born has shown the same approach even in his short political stint.

After the victory, Gambhir tweeted: “Neither it’s a ‘Lovely’ cover drive and nor it is an ‘Atishi’ ballebaazi. It’s just the BJP’s ‘gambhir’ ideology which people have supported. Thanks a lot to all the BJP team-mates for getting this mandate. We won’t fail people’s choice,”

Quite expectantly, following the triumph, Gambhir was showered with praises from the Indian cricketing fraternity. From the likes of VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh and Shikhar Dhawan, many lauded Gambhir for his superlative start to the second innings of his career.

Here is how the cricketers wished Gauti: