Veteran Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir hung up his boots on Tuesday after a 15-year long prolific career. He announced his retirement from all form of cricket through an emotional video where he spoke his heart out. Gambhir termed the decision to call it quits the most dreaded one of his career. He went on to thank all his fans, friends and family members for being his support system.
As soon as the retirement news broke out, social media got flooded with emotional messages. The Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner and Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan, took to his official Twitter account to thank Gambhir for gloriously leading his team. He also gave Gautam a precious advice that he ‘should smile a bit more’.
Here’s the tweet:
Apart from Shah Rukh, a huge number of former and current cricketers conveyed their best wishes to the 2011 World Cup hero.
Here are the tweets:
After making his debut in 2004/05 season, Gambhir formed one of India's most stable and durable opening partnerships with Virender Sehwag, with the duo putting on an Indian-record 4412 runs in 87 innings together.
He played crucial roles in two of India’s World Cup triumphs. Gambhir scored 75 in the World T20 final against Pakistan and hammered a 97, coming into bat at No.3 in what is described as one of the greatest innings of ODI World Cup against Sri Lanka in the final of the 2011 edition.
He also played in 147 ODIs between 2003 and 2013, besides featuring in 37 T20 Internationals.