Adam Gilchrist was once a desperate offensive batsman. Photo: Paul Kane/Getty Images
When he was a little boy. backyard playing in New South Wales, Adam Gilchrist and his father always ended their netting sessions the same way.
“He would rightly say that these last 20 are just hitting the ball. Hit him. Have fun and feel the thrill of the ball coming out of the center,” recalls Gilchrist. “These words have always stayed with me – just hit the ball.”
Baseball before baseball.
England have a relentless surge in test scores, and naturally Gilchrist is an enthusiastic supporter of their style, even though the Ashes are just over a week away.
” I like England's approach,” he says. “This is so exciting to watch and people start buzzing about cricket. This is a real testament to the systems they have put in place and the quality of the players and leaders they have now.”
But until the era of Ben Stokes and Brandon McCallum, Gilchrist supported Australia's Offensive Revolution.
Prince Charles Syndrome is how Gilchrist once described his anticipation of becoming an Australian Test wicket keeper. He waited until he was 28 to be chosen over Ian Healey. But when Gilchrist was finally chosen, he was successful.
The arrival of Gilchrist in 1999 marked the moment when the Australian Test team went from very good to excellent. Australia won their first 15 Tests as a player, securing the longest winning streak in Test history (Healy played in the first of 16). Gilchrist was then part of the team that repeated the series from 2005 to 2008.
Even more than his average of 47.6, it was Gilchrist's strike rate of 82 that propelled Australia into a remarkable era. He was the biggest factor in Australia's notable jump in Test run rates from 2.95 per toss in the four years prior to Gilchrist's debut to 3.80 per toss in the next four years. That amounted to 76 extra runs a day.
In the Gilchrist legend, wicket-handling often seems almost accidental compared to his batting, such was his role in changing the perception of what goalkeepers could achieve. However, one of his most cherished records was the most layoffs – 416 – of any Australian tester.
“I have always considered being a goalkeeper my number one job,” Gilchrist recalls. “There's only one goalkeeper on the team, but everyone shoots, that was the way of thinking.”
For Gilchrist, the ODI team was the road to international recognition. After Sri Lanka's victory in the 1996 World Cup, thanks to their brash first pair, Australia selected Gilchrist to lead the rankings. “Steve Waugh said, 'Listen, I think you should rise up and be our aggressor'”.
In this role, Gilchrist spent half a century in winning World Cup finals in Australia in 1999 and 2003, and then 149 in Barbados in the 2007 final when he stuffed a squash ball into his gloves. However, for all his ODI brilliance, his impact was overall greater in the five-day game.
Gilchrist scored 49 points against India will help Australia win as a substitute skipper in 2004. Photo: Mark Dudswell/Getty Images
If there wasn't a precedent for test batters attacking with the same passion as Gilchrist, opponents struggled to figure out how they should react. Often, Gilchrist raced to 30. The field would then dissipate, allowing him to accumulate quickly and with virtually no risk. Indeed, it was the template for the innings that announced Gilchrist's transformative qualities: 149 missed in the second Test as he led Australia 126-5 to their goal of a 369 victory against Pakistan in Hobart. Gilchrist scored 91 points, but only 58 of his runs were restricted in this inning.
“If I was able to be positive and hit back, you could quickly turn them away from what they have been doing so successfully to take this position. In the end, they clean the wipers. Particularly with the tail, I benefited from the fact that I had several fields where I was allowed to get away from the hit quite easily and get some momentum in my serves. And then that would give me the confidence to start playing very aggressively because they were trying to attack with 9, 10, 11.” Sometimes, says Gilchrist, it can seem like teams have stopped trying to get him out.
When discussing his favorite possibilities, he doesn't choose his 57-ball Ash age in the name of Anglo-Australian relations. Instead, Gilchrist opts for less characteristic opportunities when he has shown his worth in pivotal conditions. First of all, which is a bit surprising, is his 49 against India in Chennai in 2004 after moving up to 3rd to help smooth Australia's deficit.
Gilchrist celebrates his centenary at 57 against England in 2006 at WACA. Credit: Philip Brown/Philip Brown
Gilchrist's cameo role helped Australia fight back and secure a draw by securing their victory in India in 2004. As a substitute skipper, he took charge of the first three Tests, leading Australia to victory at their last frontier: a moment he considers his career high point.
Such contributions are testament to Gilchrist's adaptability; indeed, when he was in the top six, he averaged even more than his career average. However, the best expression of Gilchrist's skill came when he hit the ball at a more familiar pace.
In a match against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2002, Gilchrist scored 204 balls out of 213 balls, including eight sixes. During the inning, Gilchrist noticed that a billboard outside the deep Midwicket border promised a gold bar prize worth R1.3 million to anyone who hit it.
“In Wanderers, you drive almost under this billboard . . When we moved in on the second day, I looked at the field and it seemed like a long time. I told someone that no one can hit him, it's too far.
“I nailed him right in the middle and he was walking right on the sign. I thought, get up, get up, keep being big enough… and then he actually flew over the sign. So it probably wasn't as far away as I thought.” There was no goal for Gilchrist.
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