The opener later said he felt India had been unfortunate not to have gone away from the Gabba with eight points in their kitty.

“I thought we had a very good chance of beating Australia the other night. They were three down for 50 and the ball was doing a lot,” the left-hander told newsmen on Tuesday night. “Today too, we had the runs on the board and if we had picked up a couple of early wickets, we would have been on top. I personally feel we were unfortunate with the weather, we could have won both games.”

Acknowledging the importance of his unbeaten 102, the 26-year-old said, “To get to a hundred is always special, especially overseas and that too in Australia. To do it in this kind of a situation, when the team needs you to deliver, makes it more enjoyable.

“When you come to a place like Australia, to conditions you aren't used to, there always are question marks over your technique. Once you succeed here, you know you have it in you to handle situations. This knock has given me a lot of confidence. If I continue the same form, it will be very good for me and the team.”

Gambhir added that he was relishing batting at number three. “I am always comfortable batting at number three and playing long innings. If an early wicket falls, you have the time to anchor the innings, and if we are off to a good start, I can come in and play my natural attacking game. I am capable of doing both roles, I am really enjoying the number three position.”

Young line-up
In a young batting line-up, Gambhir is one of the more senior guys, though in five years, he has played only 39 one-dayers. “It's time for me to take responsibility, to stand up and deliver when the team needs you to. Today, I had the time to play myself in and pace my innings. The game plan was to have wickets in hand till the 40th over. We had lost four for 80-odd, and it was important for Dhoni and me to have a partnership. We decided that we would accept whatever was the score at the end of 40 overs, but we must have wickets in hand.

“The grounds here are very big, and you need to run hard to convert ones into twos and so on. Dhoni and I discussed it a lot. We were aware that if we could keep rotating the strike, we could have a decent score on the board,” said Gambhir of his partnership with his skipper.

Gambhir had to wait till the last over to reach his hundred. “The century was never on my mind,” he revealed. “What matters to me is that the team must win. There is no happiness if you make a hundred and the team loses. Contributing to the team's win gives you much more happiness.”