Sunil Gavaskar is highly regarded as one of the greatest Test batsmen of all time, and rightly so. His technique was probably near perfect, his defence looked better than anyone, hardest to breach, and his exceptional patience made his wicket among the hardest to earn. He was the first batsman in Indian Cricket to have such outrageous stats in the purest format of the game. Gavaskar, also known as the ‘Little Master’, is about to turn 72 and has plenty of records to his name during the career, which lasted 125 Tests.
Let’s have a look at some of those prestigious ones :
1) 1st ever to cross the 10,000 run mark in Test Cricket
Sunil Gavaskar created history on March 7, 1987, against Pakistan, as he became the first-ever batsman to cross the 10,000 run mark in Test Cricket. As expected, the Ahmedabad crowd went berserk while entering the field to congratulate the mainstay of Indian batting of that era and one of the finest of all time. Coincidentally, it also proved to be the last series of his prestigious Test career. Find here the list of top run-scorers in Indian cricket.
2) Scored more than 700 hundred runs in his Debut series
Gavaskar debuted in March 1971 against the mighty West Indies attack in their own backyard, but that didn’t stop him from announcing himself in front of the cricketing world. The young right-hander stood tall against the most fearsome attack in world cricket at that time. He batted in 8 innings and amassed 774 runs with four hundreds and three fifties at a supreme average of 154.8, including a double hundred. To date, it’s still the highest number of runs scored by an Indian batsman in a Test series. You can check here who leads the same chart in ODIs.
3) A double century and a century in the same Test match
In his Debut series itself, Gavaskar smashed many records. One of those rare feats came along when he became the 1st Indian, and till date, the only one to score a double hundred and a hundred in the same Test match. The little master scored 124 in the first innings and 220 in the second innings. The Test ended as a Draw, which ensured India clinch the 5 match Test series by 1-0. Gavaskar ended his career with 4 double century knocks to his name, currently standing at 5th in India’s list of most Test 200s. He is also the only Indian and one of the six batsmen overall to have a double century in the 4th innings of a Test.
4) First Indian batsman to carry his bat through a completed Test innings
Yet again, the batting prowess created history with his bat when he became the 1st Indian batsman to remain not out in the entire innings of a Test match. Gavaskar achieved this unimaginable feat during his 127* against Pakistan at Faisalabad. Since then, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and Cheteshwar Pujara are the only 3 Indians apart from the Little Master to achieve this rare feat.
5) Youngest double centurion in an overseas Test
Gavaskar grabbed another prestigious record under his armour at the Queen’s Park Oval in 1971 in his debut series against the West Indies. He became the youngest batsman to ever score a double century in an overseas test by scoring 220 at 21 years and 277 days. He broke the record of none other than Don Bradman, who scored 254 against England in 1930 when he was just 21 years and 304 days old. You can continue reading into some insane records hold by Don Bradman here.
