Adam Gilchrist reveals three current best batsmen in the world

If there is a list on the players who made quite an impact on the way cricket is being played, Adam Gilchrist is one name that will surely be on it.  He changed how the people looked at wicket-keepers. He was literally a trailblazer on the field. He blasted 5570 runs from 96 Test at an average of 47.60 and 9619 runs from 287 ODIs. Behind the stumps, he effected close to 800 catches and 100 stumpings . Just in case you thought you couldn’t love him more, he proved to be the ultimate sportsman when he “walked” after edging in the Semi-final of the World Cup in 2003.

He has continued on a similar vein even after his retirement. Recently he was in Manipal, as part of the delegation from the University of Wollongong led by Professor Paul Wellings, in his capacity as Australia’s Education Ambassador to India. Once the event was done he was quite happy to oblige the journalists gathered.

As is the norm, one of the first questions fielded to him was what he thought of Virat Kohli and he had this to say, “I’m not saying this because I’m in India, but Virat, Joe Root and AB De Villiers are the best in the world right now”.

When asked about his toughest opponent individually as well as a team, he replied as a batsman he found Murali hard to handle. It was no surprise when he chose India as the team he found the toughest to face.

“Murali was very difficult. I had no clue most of the time. I’d think it would come in and it would rip past my blade and vice versa and then a quicker one in between. I just swept him when I wasn’t sure (chuckles).“And as a team, the most difficult opponent we faced were India in India. We came here in 2001 and had no clue about the conditions but it was a very good series and a learning experience for a lot of us. We almost won in 2001. Then when we came back here in 2004 we crossed that line and actually won. So yeah India has always been a tough side to beat at home.”

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He was then asked to recall the most intense personal experience and he joked by saying, “Personally, my most intense moment on the cricket pitch was keeping wickets to Warnie. If I missed a stumping off his bowling and when he stood at first slip in the next over, yeah it was pretty intense”

After retirement, he has been quite busy being an ambassador for the charity World Vision in India, a commentator for Channel 9 during the Australian summer and for Channel 10 during the Big Bash.  He is also  an ambassador for Amway Australia where he has taken part in many of their charity events. In August 2010, he was the Face of the Freedom Wheels program, a program which provided altered bikes to physically challenged kids. He keeps winning our hearts, doesn’t he?