Name: ADAM CRAIG GILCHIRST.
Nickname: Gilly, Church.
Date of Birth: 14 November 1971.
Place of Birth: Bellingen, New South Wales, Australia.
Batting Style: Left Handed Batsman.
Bowling Style: Right Arm Off break.
Role: Batsman and Wicket Keeper.
Height: 1.86m (6feet 1inches)
TEST Debut: against Pakistan at Gabba, Brisbane in 1999.
ODI Debut: against South Africa at Faridabad, Pakistan in 1996.
Playing Teams: New South Wales (1992-94), Western Australia (1994), Australia and Deccan chargers (2008).
About Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist (born 14 November 1971), nicknamed Gilly or Church is a retired Australian international cricketer. He is an aggressive left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who re-defined the role for the Australian national team. He is considered to be one of the best wicket-keeper-batsmen in the history of the game.
Adam Gilchrist was born in 1971 at Bellingen Hospital, in Bellingen, New South Wales. He and his family lived in Dorrigo, Junee and then Deniliquin where, playing for his school, Deniliquin South Public School, he won the Brian Taber Shield (named after New South Wales cricketer Brian Taber). At the age of 13, his parents, Stan and June, moved the family to Lismore where Gilchrist captained the Kadina High School cricket team. In 1989 Gilchrist was offered a scholarship by London-based Richmond Cricket Club, a scheme he now supports himself.
He is married to his high school sweetheart Melinda (Mel) Gilchrist (née Sharpe), a dietitian, and they have two sons, Harrison and Archie, and a daughter, Annie Jean. Gilchrist’s personal life became newsworthy early in 2007, as his youngest child was due to be born around the scheduled start of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and this threatened Gilchrist's presence in the early stages of the tournament in March. Archie’s early arrival (in February) meant that Gilchrist was able to declare himself available for the whole competition.
Outside cricket, Gilchrist is an ambassador for the charity World Vision in India, a country in which he is popular due to his cricketing achievements. In 2006 Gilchrist sponsored Mangesh Rathod, an underprivileged child from Andheri, Mumbai who had lost his father to tuberculosis. Mangesh's mother works as a housemaid for a paltry salary of Rs 500 per month. Gilchrist bears his cost of education. He was approached in early 2005 by the US baseball franchise, the Boston Red Sox, with a view to him playing for them when his cricket career ends. However, he was selected for the 2007 Cricket World Cup and remains an active cricketer.
Gilchrist was selected for his first-class debut for New South Wales during the 1992–1993 season, although he played purely as a batsman, due to the presence of incumbent wicketkeeper Phil Emery. In his first season, the side won the Sheffield Shield, Gilchrist scoring an unbeaten 20 in the second innings to secure an easy win over Queens land in the Final. He struggled to keep his place in the side, playing only three First-class matches in the following season.
In 1994 Gilchrist joined the Western Warriors in Western Australia, where he controversially replaced former Test player Tim Zoehrer as wicket keeper. He made 55 dismissals in his first season, the most by any wicketkeeper in Australian domestic cricket in 1994–95. His second season based in Perth saw him top of the dismissals again, with 58 catches and four stumpings, but, significantly, an impressive batting average of 50.52. The Warriors made it to the final of the Sheffield Shield, at the Adelaide Oval, where Gilchrist made a massive 189 not out in the first innings, but, with the match ending in a draw, South Australia took the title, having scored more points in the qualifying matches.
The 1996–97 season saw him top of the dismissals leader board once again, with 62, along with a batting average of just under 40, and team success in the Mercantile Mutual Cup, where the Warriors won by eight wickets against Queens land in the March 1997 final.
The 1997–98 season ended with Gilchrist top of the dismissals chart for the fourth season in a row with an improved batting average of 47.66, success in the Sheffield Shield once again, this time against Tasmania, but disappointment for the team in the Mercantile Mutual Cup, losing out in the semi-final to Queens land. The following season saw Gilchrist's domestic appearances begin to diminish due to his international commitments: he made only a single appearance in the Mercantile Mutual Cup, but still managed to help Western Australia regain the Sheffield Shield.
Gilchrist's regular selection for Australia has meant that he is rarely available for domestic selection. Between 1999 and 2005, he made only seven appearances for his state. He did not play in the 2005–6 Pura Cup and only appeared three times in the limited-overs ING Cup.
Gilchrist was called up for the Australian One Day International (ODI) team in 1996, his debut coming against South Africa at Faridabad, 25 October 1996 as the 129th Australian ODI cap. While not particularly impressive with the bat on his debut, scoring 18 before being bowled by Allan Donald, Gilchrist took his first catch as an international wicketkeeper, Hansie Cronje departing for a golden duck from the bowling of Paul Reiffel. Gilchrist replaced Ian Healy for the first two ODIs in the 1997 Australian tour of South Africa, after Healy was suspended for dissent. When Healy returned Gilchrist maintained his position in the team as a specialist batsman after Mark Waugh sustained a hand injury. It was during this One-day series that Gilchrist made his first ODI half-century, with an innings of 77 in Durban. Gilchrist went on to play in the Texaco Trophy later in 1997 in the 3–0 series loss against England.
At the start of the 1997–98 Australian season, Healy and Captain Mark Taylor were omitted from the ODI squad as the Australian selectors opted for Gilchrist and Michael di Venuto. Gilchrist's elevation was made possible by a change in policy by selectors, who announced that selection for ODI and Test teams would be separate, with Test and ODI specialists selected accordingly, while Healy remained the preferred Test wicket keeper. The new team was initially unconvincing, losing all four of its round robin matches against South Africa in the 1997–98 Carlton & United Series, with multiple players filling Taylor's role as Mark Waugh's opening partner without success. Gilchrist also struggled batting in the lower order at number seven, the conventional wicket keeper's batting position. In the first final against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground Gilchrist was selected as Waugh's opening partner. In a particularly poor start to the new combination, Waugh was run out after a mix-up with Gilchrist. However, in the second final, Gilchrist struck a century, his first in an ODI, to spearhead Australia's successful run chase at the Sydney Cricket Ground, securing his position as an opening batsman.
Touring New Zealand in February 1998, Gilchrist achieved the highest average of all Australian batsmen with 50.00, and, significantly, effected his first ODI stumping, the wicket of Nathan Astle in the Second ODI in Wellington. He went on to play in the Coca Cola Cup in Sharjah in April 1998, a triangular tournament between Australia, India and New Zealand. Australia finished runners-up in the tournament, with Gilchrist taking nine dismissals as wicketkeeper and averaging over 37 with the bat. A productive individual performance in the One-day Carlton & United Series in January and February 1999 against Sri Lanka and England resulted in Gilchrist finishing with a batting average of 43.75 with two centuries and a fifty, a highest score of 154, and a total of 27 dismissals in 12 matches. The 1999 tour of the West Indies continued to prove Gilchrist's ability as a wicketkeeper-batsman, with a batting average of just under 30 at a strike rate of nearly 90.00, and seven fielding dismissals in a seven-match series which ended 3–3 with one tie.
Test Career Of Gilchrist
Gilchrist made his Test match debut against Pakistan at the Gabba in Brisbane in November 1999 and became the 381st Australian Test cricketer. He replaced Healy for the start of the series, despite Healy's entreaties to the selectors to allow him a farewell game in front of his home crowd. Gilchrist's icy reception at the Gabba did not faze him; he took five catches, stumped Azhar Mahmood off Shane Warne's bowling and scored a rapid 81, in a match, which Australia won comfortably. In his second Test match he made an unbeaten 149 to help guide Australia to victory in a game, which looked well beyond their reach. Australia were struggling on 126 for 5 with a target of 369 to win as he joined his Western Australian team-mate, Justin Langer, but the pair put on a record-breaking partnership to enable Australia to win the Test. Gilchrist was also successful in the One-day tournament, the Carlton & United Series, with Australia beating Pakistan 2–0 in a best-of-three final.
Gilchrist played a pivotal role in the 2001 Ashes series which Australia won 4–1, with a batting average of 68.00 and 26 dismissals in the five match series. During this series, he captained the team in the Fourth Test at Headingley after an injury to Steve Waugh. Gilchrist declared late on the fourth day leaving England with a target of 315, which, despite losing two early wickets, England reached with six wickets to spare, (Mark Butcher scoring an unbeaten 173, including 24 boundaries).
The Australians then toured South Africa the next month and it was during the First Test in Johannesburg that Gilchrist broke the record for the fastest double century in Tests, requiring 212 balls for the feat. This was eight ball quicker than Ian Botham's innings against India at the Oval in 1982. The record lasted only one month, however, with New Zealand's Nathan Astle taking 59 balls less to reach the milestone during an innings in March 2002. During the three-match Test series against South Africa, Gilchrist had an astonishing average of 157.66 at an equally impressive strike rate of just below 100.
In early 2005, he hit three successive Test centuries against Pakistan and New Zealand, but later in 2005, he suffered from a prolonged slump in form, particularly in Test cricket, leading for calls for him to be dropped down the order from opening batsman to as low as number seven On 16 December 2006, during the Third Ashes Test at the WACA, Gilchrist scored a century in 57 balls, including twelve 4s and four 6s, the second fastest recorded Test century. At 97 runs from 54 balls, Gilchrist needed three runs from the next delivery to better Viv Richards' record set in 1986. He carried this good form into the 2006-07 Ashes series with a century and two fifties, averaging over 45 at a strike rate of over 100 as Australia easily regained The Ashes. However, both he and Australia suffered a surprising string of poor results in the 2006-07 Commonwealth Bank Series, Gilchrist managing an average of only 22.20 during the tournament. England won with two finals victories over the Australians.
World Cup Career Of Gilchrist
In world cup 1999, Gilchrist played in every match of Australia's successful World Cup campaign, his quick-fire 63 runs in 39 balls against Bangladesh easing the Australians into the Super Six stage of the tournament. His half-century in the final helped secure Australia's first world title since 1987 with an eight-wicket victory over Pakistan. Success in the World Cup was followed by a defeat by Sri Lanka in the final of the Aiwa Cup in August 1999, despite Gilchrist being the most successful batsman and wicket keeper of the tournament, and a whitewash of Zimbabwe in October of that year.
In world cup 2003, Gilchrist played in all but one of the matches in Australia's successful defence of their World Cup title, and finished the tournament with a batting average of 40.80 at a strike rate of 105. He scored four half-centuries, including one in the final and was run out against Sri Lanka in the Super Six stage just a single run short of a century. He was also the competition's most successful wicketkeeper taking 21 dismissals. Success in the World Cup was followed up by a tour of the West Indies where Gilchrist was part of a side that won both the ODI and Test series. The Australians also defeated a touring Bangladeshi cricket team in short series in both forms of the game.
In world cup 2007, Gilchrist and Australia started their 2007 World Cup campaign successfully, winning all three of their matches in Group A, against Scotland, the Netherlands and South Africa. Australia won all six of their matches in the Super8 stage with little difficulty, topping the table and thus qualifying for a semi-final rematch against fourth-placed South Africa. Gilchrist opened the Australian batting in each match, taking a pinch-hitting role in the opening power plays. Initially successful in the group matches, scoring 46, 57 and 42, he failed in the first Super8 match against West Indies (7), but bounced back to score a second half-century (59 not out) in a ten-wicket victory against Bangladesh in a match drastically shortened due to rain. After a run of middling scores, he failed again in the final Super8 match against New Zealand.
As batsman, Gilchrist was dismissed for a single run in the semi-final against South Africa. As wicket-keeper, however, he took four catches, equaling the most dismissals in one match in the tournament and bringing his total for the tournament to 14, second behind Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara.
Gilchrist opened the batting against Sri Lanka in the final. This was Gilchrist's third successive World Cup final, and the third time he scored a half-century in World Cup finals. Gilchrist went on to score 149 runs off 104 balls with thirteen fours and eight sixes, the highest individual score in a World Cup final, eclipsing his captain Ricky Ponting's score of 140 in the previous final. He was named the man of the match. Subsequently there has been some controversy over Gilchrist's use of a squash ball inside his glove during this innings. The MCC stated that Gilchrist had not acted against the laws or the spirit of the game, since there is no restriction against the external or internal form of batting gloves.
Records Of Gilchrist's Cricket Career
1. He holds the record of holding most number of ODI dismissals by a wicket keeper (455).
2.He holds the record of scoring second fastest ODI century by Australian (67 balls) against Sri Lanka.
3.He holds most ODI centuries by a Wicket Keeper (15).
4. He holds the record of hitting most sixes in Test career (100sixes).
5. He holds the record of scoring second quickest hundred in 57 deliveries against England.
6. He holds the second most Test dismissals by a Wicket Keeper (416).
Gilly’s Awards in Test Matches………………………...
7 .“Man of the Match” awards……………….
~ New Zealand [3], India [1], England [1], South Africa [1] and Bangladesh [1].
Cricket Career Of Gilchrist
ONE DAY
Matches: 287.
Runs: 9,619.
Best: 172 against Zimbabwe.
Average: 35.89
100’s: 16
50’s: 55
Catches: 417
Stumpings: 55.
TEST
Matches: 96
Runs: 5,570
Best: 204*
Average: 47.60
100’s: 17
50’s: 26
Catches: 379
Stumpings: 37.
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