Adam Gilchrist, the wicket-keeper who hit hard and walked when he knew he was out
Adam Gilchrist changed what Australia expected from the player behind the stumps. A left-hander who attacked from ball one, he became the first to hit 100 Test sixes, yet he was famous for walking off whenever he believed he was out, even if the umpire had said otherwise.
Born in Bellingen, New South Wales, in 1971, the youngest of four, Gilchrist moved around country towns as a boy, winning the Brian Taber Shield with his primary school in Deniliquin and later captaining Kadina High in Lismore. In 1989 a London club, Richmond, gave him a scholarship, a scheme he now backs himself, and he collected a league and cup double with a local under-17 side.
His first-class career began with New South Wales in 1992–93, but a crowded team pushed him west. Joining Western Australia for 1994–95, he beat the former Test keeper Tim Zoehrer to the gloves after a pre-season century, winning over fans who had resented his arrival, and took 55 dismissals that summer. His breakthrough innings came in a Sheffield Shield final at Adelaide Oval, where he made 189 not out from 187 balls.
His ODI debut came against South Africa at Faridabad in October 1996, standing in for the injured Ian Healy; he scored 18 and took his first catch. By late 1999 he owned the Test gloves. Across 96 Tests and more than 270 one-day games he struck 17 Test and 16 ODI hundreds, both bettered among keepers only by Sangakkara. His 57-ball century against England at Perth in 2006 ranks fourth-fastest in Test history.
World Cup finals brought out his best: he passed fifty in three in a row, in 1999, 2003 and 2007, and the last of those, 149 from 101 balls against Sri Lanka, is rated among the greatest innings the tournament has seen. He retired from internationals in March 2008 but kept playing, captaining in the IPL for Deccan and Kings XI Punjab and becoming its first batter to reach 1000 runs, before stopping in 2013.
Source: Adam Gilchrist
