[14] His family came under the spotlight in the months leading up to the 2007 Cricket World Cup as one impending birth threatened his presence in the squad; the child was born in February and Gilchrist was able to take part in the tournament.

[11] Upon returning to Australia, Gilchrist scored two centuries in four matches for the state Colts and Second XI teams,[11] and was rewarded with selection to make his first-class debut for New South Wales during the 1992–93 season,[1] although he played purely as a batsman, due to the presence of incumbent wicketkeeper Phil Emery.

[17] In his first season, the side won the Sheffield Shield, Gilchrist scoring an unbeaten 20 in the second innings to secure an easy win over Queensland in the final.

[11][20] Due to a lack of opportunities in the dominant New South Wales outfit,[21] Gilchrist joined Western Australia at the start of the 1994–95, where he had to compete with former Test player Tim Zoehrer for the wicket-keeper's berth.

[11] Team success came in the Mercantile Mutual Cup, where the Warriors won by eight wickets against Queensland in the March 1997 final; Gilchrist was not required to bat.

[37][38] Before the fourth season of the IPL Gilchrist was bought at the 2011 player auction by Kings XI Punjab for US$900,000 and was, again, appointed as captain, taking over from Kumar Sangakkara who had moved to Deccan.

In March 2012 he was named player-coach of the side for the following season, replacing his friend and former Australia teammate Michael Bevan, whose contract as head coach was not renewed.

[44] A planned appearance in the first season of the Caribbean Premier League had to be cancelled after an ankle injury[45] and the match proved to be Gilchrist's last in top-class cricket.

[65] The new team was initially unconvincing, losing all four round robin matches against South Africa in the 1997–98 Carlton & United Series,[66] with multiple players filling Taylor's role as Mark Waugh's opening partner without success.

[68] However, in the second final, Gilchrist struck his maiden ODI century, spearheading Australia's successful run chase at the Sydney Cricket Ground,[11] securing his position as an opening batsman.

[11] Gilchrist was in fine form ahead of the 1999 Cricket World Cup with a productive individual performance in the Carlton & United Series in January and February 1999 against Sri Lanka and England.

[88] He replaced Healy, who was dropped after a run of poor form, despite the incumbent's entreaties to the selectors to allow him a farewell game in front of his home crowd.

[91] Gilchrist's icy reception at the Gabba did not faze him;[92] he took five catches, stumped Azhar Mahmood off Shane Warne's bowling and scored a rapid 81, mostly in partnership with ODI partner Waugh, in a match that Australia won comfortably by ten wickets.

[97] Later that year, he was handed the vice-captaincy of the Australian team in place of Shane Warne, who had been plagued by a number of off-field controversies, including an altercation with some teenage boys,[100] and a sex scandal with a British nurse.

[106] Gilchrist's form dipped momentarily, with a rare king pair (two golden ducks in the same match) in the Second Test in Kolkata and just two runs in his two innings in Chennai.

With a newly fragile top order, Australia failed to qualify for the finals, and the Waugh brothers were dropped from the team, ending Gilchrist's four-year partnership with Mark.

With the exception of the 2001 tour of India, when he averaged 24.80 (he made 124 runs in the series; 122 of them came in one innings), his performances with the bat were such that he was described at the time as the "finest batsman-wicketkeeper to have graced the game".

In 2009 it was described as an "astonishing moment" drawing criticism from England's Angus Fraser, who "objected to him being canonised simply for not cheating", and from others who "thought that he walked almost by accident; that having played his shot he overbalanced in the direction of the pavilion."

[11] However, he maintained high standards in ODIs during this period, including 111 against India in Bangalore, 172 against Zimbabwe, just one run short of Mark Waugh's Australian record, and two further half-centuries in the VB Series in Australia.

He took the captaincy of the Test team once again, in place of the injured Ricky Ponting,[142] and led the Australian side to a historic 2–1 series victory in India, a feat last achieved in 1969.

He was rested for two games and returned to form against Sri Lanka on 29 January 2006 on his home ground, the WACA, hitting 116 runs off 105 balls to lead Australia to victory.

[147] He continued in this vein with the fastest ever century by an Australian in just 67 balls against Sri Lanka at the Gabba, ending with 122 as Australia won the deciding third final by nine wickets.

[151] He later claimed that the "batting pyrotechnics" had been the result of a miscommunication between Michael Clarke and him with the Australian captain Ricky Ponting; Gilchrist had actually been told not to score quick runs with a view to declaring the innings.

[11] In November, Gilchrist's peers voted him the greatest Australian ODI cricketer ever, for which he was awarded an honour at an ACA function before Australia's second Test against Sri Lanka.

[164] A back injury kept Ricky Ponting off the field for sections of the Indian's second innings, resulting in Gilchrist captaining the team for part of the final two days of his Test cricket career.

"[205] In a poll of over ten thousand people hosted in 2007 by ESPNcricinfo, he was voted the ninth greatest all-rounder of the last one hundred years.

Gilchrist questioned the integrity of leading Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar in relation to the evidence he presented in the Monkeygate dispute, which was about allegations of racism against Harbhajan Singh.

"[220][221] Gilchrist claimed that Muralitharan threw the ball and alleged that the ICC protected him because Sri Lankan cricket authorities portrayed any criticism of the bowler's legitimacy as racism and a witch-hunt conducted by whites.

[221][222] In response to these comments, former Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu said that by questioning the credentials of players like Muralitharan and Tendulkar, Gilchrist had done no good to his own reputation.

His appointment to the board of ASX listed sandalwood company TFS Corporation,[234] committee member of Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth[235] and director of Travelex.