Cricket: The man they call 'GILI'-Adam Gilchrist.

He is probably the most destructive batsman in World Cricket and has one of the safest pair of gloves when he keeps wickets. He is the one and only, the supremely talented Australian wicket keeper/Batsman, Adam Gilchrist.

Called "Gili" by his teammates, Gilchrist has taken the Cricket world by storm since his debut in 1996. He replaced the injured Ian Healy (former Aussie wicket keeper) in a one-day tournament played in India. His debut was not sensational but one could easily make out that this Western Australian had plenty of talent and he had what it takes to reach the top.

Gilchrist's moment of glory came in the second of the three finals of The C & U Triangular Series played in early 1998 in Australia. South Africa had won the first Final and Australia was facing a do or die situation. Adam Gilchrist, for the first time in his career, was promoted to the openers slot and he didn't let his team down. He smashed his way towards his first One-Day Century and in the process led Australia to a comfortable victory over the Proteas. Australia went on to win the Triangular Series. Since that fateful day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground 'Gili' has never looked back.

Adam Gilchrist has been one of the biggest superstars of the World beating Australian squad.

He was a part of the Australian World Cup winning squad at the 1999 World Cup in England.

In fact, in the finals it was Adam's knock that ensured that Australia suffered no hiccups, while chasing a meager Pakistan total. He smashed a blistering 54 off 32 balls and took the match right away from the Pakistanis. The Pakistanis boasted of the most potent bowling attack in the World Cup, but Gilchrist made a mockery of their reputation.

Gilchrist has been a real asset in the One-Day format of the game. He has the second highest individual score for Australia in One-Day Cricket of 154, and his strike rate of 90 is among the top strike rates in the World. Gilchrist, along with teammate Mark Waugh, forms a formidable opening pair. He has played some outstanding innings for Australia, and as a matter of fact, all of his One-Day 100s have been match winning efforts, the sign of a truly great player.

Adam Gilchrist played his first test match against Pakistan at Brisbane in 1999. He had played 76 One Dayers before playing his first test match, a record in itself. Gilchrist scored a breezy 81 as Australia went on to win the test match by 10 wickets. In the following Test Match at Hobart, Gilchrist probably played the innings of his life.

Following the humiliating 10-wicket defeat in Brisbane, Pakistan made a strong comeback at Hobart as they set the Aussies a huge target of 369 in the last innings of the match. History was against Australia, as only twice had a target over 350 runs been achieved in over 100 years of Test Cricket. Pakistani victory seemed a mere formality as they reduced the Aussies to 5 down for 127 runs. Pakistani bowling attack was at full strength and to chase 350 runs against them is no mean achievement. With Australia needing another 250 runs to win, Adam Gilchrist walked in. Playing only in his second Test, Gilchrist along with his Western Australia teammate Justin Langer, blasted the Pakistani bowlers to all parts of the ground and a seemingly impossible victory was achieved with almost embarrassing ease. Gili, in his natural aggressive style, made a brilliant 149 not out of 140 odd balls. One of the all time great innings played in Test Cricket.

Gilchrist continued in the same vein when Australia toured India in March 2001. In the First Test, the Australians were struggling at 99 for 5 in their First Innings after dismissing India for a paltry 176. The match was hanging on a knife's edge. Again, Gilchrist walked in and turned the tide in Australia's favor. What followed was a breath taking display of top class clean hitting. In a matter of a couple of hours Gili had well and truly taken the match out of India's grasp. He assaulted the Indian attack as if there was no tomorrow and reached his 2nd test century in grand style. Gilchrist was absolutely stunning on that afternoon in Mumbai. His batting against the Indian spinners was simply superb as he hit the spinners for five huge sixes and completely demoralized the Indians. His 122 came of just 112 balls and in the end proved to be yet another match winning knock for Australia. However, in the next two test matches Gilchrist learnt the lesson about Cricket being a great leveler. His heroics in the first test match were followed by the embarrassment of a "King Pair" (in cricketing language, a King Pair is a situation when the batsman fails to score in both the innings of a test match and gets out off the first ball in both the Innings). In the third test at Kolkatta, Gilchrist could manage only two runs in the two innings he batted. Subsequently, Australia lost the series 2-1 and their World Record run of 16 consecutive test victories came to an end.

For a piece of Cricket Trivia, Adam Gilchrist had not experienced a Test Match defeat in his first 15 Test Matches as Australia won all of them. Just as he was the part of the World Cup winning squad, he was also a part of the Australian Test Team that made the World Record for the most successive Test victories. They beat the earlier record of 11 victories by a margin of five, they won 16 in a row.

After a slight hiccup in India, Gilchrist was back with a bang against traditional rivals England.

In his debut Ashes Test he smashed a brilliant 152 off 142 balls. It was a typical Gilchrist innings as it was studded with five towering sixes and 15 cracking boundaries. Again, like his previous two centuries, this was also a match-winning knock. Adam Gilchrist is a destroyer and it is his ability to mix brute force with silken timing that makes him such a special Cricketer.

His ability behind the stumps cannot be under mined as well. He has the record for taking the most number of catches in a One-Day International (6). He is also one of the very few wicket keepers who have affected 10 dismissals in a Test Match. Behind the stumps, Gilchrist is like Superman, often coming up with some stunning catches. His keeping to the world's best leg-spinner, Shane Warne, has also been exceptional.

Gilchrist's Test Match career has been a short one but he has shown that in the years to come he would definitely be one of the legends of World Cricket. More than his outstanding statistics in both forms of Cricket, it's his aggressive style of batting which has won millions of hearts all round the World. While Gilchrist continues to play, one thing is for certain, that bowlers all over the World will have plenty of sleepless nights and some may even have nightmares.

A true match winner, a great team man, an exceptional entertainer and above all an Icon for millions of fans. That's "Gili" for you.