5 of Gambhir's most significant contributions in India's cricket history

97 vs Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, ICC Cricket World Cup Final on 2 April 2011

Gambhir's 97 in the World Cup final is regarded as one of the best international innings in a World Cup final

Going into their first World Cup final at home, India were under a lot of positive and negative pressure for a lot of reasons. Having been humiliated in their previous World Cup final in 2003, Indian fans still had a lot of expectations from a side with a mix of experience and youth.

India lost the toss this time and Sri Lanka decided to bat - setting India a target of 275 from 50 overs.

By the beginning of the seventh over, both of India's openers - Sehwag and Sachin - were back in the dressing room. Lasith Malinga was in red-hot form and was breathing fire on his IPL home ground.

Sri Lanka were fired up as well and a bowling lineup consisting of Malinga, Muralitharan, Kulasekara and Randiv, were ready to derail India's chase in yet another tournament final - a trend their team perfected for over a decade.

Gambhir took charge of the situation and Virat Kohli provided just the support he needed. The Delhi teammates kept rotating the strike and hitting the odd boundaries whenever the opportunity came.

Gambhir swept, cut, pulled and dived, and carried on even with a mud-wrapped shirt. Kohli's innings was put to halt by a brilliant caught and bowled by Tillakaratne Dilshan.

None of that, however, deterred Gambhir, and he fought on. He was in a zone of his own and this also gave confidence to India's out of form captain MS Dhoni, who came out of his usual number six position in that tournament to bat at number five.

Whether it was Muralitharan, Randiv, Dilshan, Malinga, Kulasekara or Thisara Perera, Gambhir attacked all the bowlers with equal ease - taking India to within 52 runs of victory.

With 52 still needed, Gambhir - on 97 - went down the wicket and played a premeditated horizontal bat shot to find his off stump uprooted. Dhoni, who had also passed his half-century by then, played the finishing innings of his life, while player-of-the-tournament Yuvraj Singh held the other end.

Dhoni finished with a six, won the trophy and the man-of-the-match award. Gambhir deserved a hundred and at least the man-of-the-match award according to many but as Dhoni himself stated himself in the post-match presentation, he had himself to blame.

This knock helped India earn their India's first ever tournament victory in a 50-over World Cup. Gambhir finished the tournament as the sixth-highest run-scorer and second-highest for India after Sachin - with 393 runs off 9 innings with 4 fifties - against England, South Africa, Australia (in the quarter-final) and Sri Lanka (in the final).