Important to play to your strength, says Gambhir

COLOMBO: He is the hungry young man of Indian cricket. Gautam Gambhir goes about his business of scoring runs in any format of the game with a tigerish zeal.
Even when he addresses the media, the replies are like a round of rapid-fire.
Just like he bats in the middle. On Thursday afternoon, the 27-year-old was at it again having cracked his best score - 150 - in ODIs as India���s romped to their fourth successive win in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka.The knock he felt would keep him in good stead for the forthcoming series in New Zealand.
"I actually wanted to get a big score in the series, because the New Zealand tour is coming up and I wanted to carry some of the confidence from here." Dwelling on his assured presence at the crease in recent times, the Delhi opener says, "I much more relaxed and confident. Once you feel secure of your place in the side and know that one or two failures are not going to make much difference you feel a lot more confident."
It has been reflecting in his scores too. The 249 runs from 4 matches is an extension of an extremely successful year in 2008. He was not only hugely successful in Tests - 1134 runs from 8 Tests, average 70.87 - but was equally effective in ODIs logging 1119 runs from 27 matches (average 46.63).
He is possibly the only Indian player after MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag, who commands a place in all three formats of the game. He also became a part of history when he became the 503rd victim of Muttiah Muralitharan, which was a new world mark of highest ODI wickets for the bowler.
Murali might have had the last laugh but he had to bear the brunt of Gambhir���s blade until then as the batsman hit him for 32 runs. The bowler finished with horrible figures of 10-0-66-1 as Gambhir employed the inside-out shot to good effect.
"That shot against an off-spinner is my strength," he remarked before adding, "for any batsman it is important to play to his strength. He should know his scoring areas, he can���t just play every shot, especially against a quality bowler like Murali. I was comfortable playing that shot and so far it has been working for me."
His effort on Thursday may have been hard work as he compiled 88 of his runs in singles, twos and threes, but Gambhir emphasises that is how he wanted to go about his innings.
"It���s important to run a lot in Sri Lanka if you want to be successful. I don���t think I can hit the shots as far as an MS (Dhoni), Yuvi (Yuvraj Singh) or Viru (Sehwag) can do. You have to know your game well and play accordingly and not copy them. For me it���s really important to batlong as the rest (who follow him in the batting lineup) are big hitters." Bowlers better beware. It is going to get increasingly tough to corner this feisty left-hander.