It's the 72nd birthday of the legendary batsman from India.
Arguably one of the greatest test batsman of all time, Gavaskar had a near-perfect technique. His concentration level was too accurate and his game was built around his compact defence. As an opener, he used to hold one end up more often than not.
He was not a tall man (5 feet 5 inch in height), but was really brave. In an era where the fast bowlers enjoyed the most with no restrictions in terms of the number of bouncers in an over, the 'little master' encountered them without the use of helmets.
BEST FIRST IMPRESSION
In his debut series in 1971 against West Indies, he scored a mammoth 774 runs in 4 matches at an average of 154.80. This record stands in tests till date. It was also India's first ever series win in West Indies.
Image courtesy - CricToday.
THE MASTER OF FOURTH INNINGS
One of the reasons he's highly rated is for his contribution in the fourth innings of the test matches. It's never easy to score runs in the fourth innings, certainly not for an opener. He scored 1398 runs in 33 innings at an average of 58.25 including 4 hundreds.
FIRST TO 10000 TEST RUNS
In 1987 test at Ahmedabad against Pakistan, he became the first batter to score 10000 test runs. The record was surpassed in the following decade by the great Allan Border.
RECORDS AT THE TIME OF RETIREMENT
He retired from cricket in 1987. At the time of his retirement, he had the most test runs and most test hundreds. Apart from this, he held the record of the highest test score by an Indian for almost 18 years. He also had the most test hundreds against an opponent (13 vs Windies).
Image courtesy - Scroll In.
A BAD CAPTAIN ?
It's true that he wasn't a great captain. He lost most of the test series as a captain but one of India's most famous win, World Championship of Cricket in 1985, came under Gavaskar's captaincy. The win in the tournament was more of a statement from India that the 1983 World Cup win wasn't a fluke.
Image courtesy - 100MB Sports.
