Sunil Gavaskar History

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar   is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer representing India and Bombay from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. One of the best opening batsmen in Test cricket history, He set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman. He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar . He was the first person to score centuries in both innings of a Test match three times. He was the first Test batsman to score 10,000 Test runs.

Gavaskar was admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a high average of 65.45 against the West Indies . most of Gavaskar's centuries against West Indies were against their second string team. Turbulent performances of the team led to multiple exchanges of captaincy between Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, with one of Gavaskar's sackings coming just six months before Kapil led India to victory at the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He is also a former Sheriff of Mumbai.

Gavaskar was awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.

Domestic Debut

Young Sunil Gavaskar was named India's Best Schoolboy Cricketer of the year in 1966 . He scored 246*, 222 and 85 in school cricket in his final year of secondary education. He made his first-class debut for Vazir Sultan Colts XI against an XI from Dungarpur in 1966/67 . He made his debut in the 1968/69 season against Karnataka but made a duck and was the subject of derisive claims that his selection. He responded with 114 against Rajasthan in his second match and two other consecutive centuries.

Test Debut

Missing the first Test due to an infected fingernail, Gavaskar scored 65 and 67 not out in the second Test in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, hitting the winning runs which gave India its first-ever win over the West Indies. Scored  lots of runs against Australia , England , West Indies , Pakistan in his career.

Captaincy

Gavaskar was captain of the Indian team on several occasions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although his record is less than impressive. Often equipped with unpenetrative bowling attacks he tended to use conservative tactics which resulted in a large number of draws. During his tenure, Kapil Dev emerged as a leading pace bowler for the country. He captained India to nine victories and eight losses, but most of the games were drawn, 30

Breaking Bradman's Record

He then went on to score 121, his 29th Test century in 94 balls in his 95th test match, equalling Don Bradman's world record. He also passed 8,000 Test runs in the innings, and was personally honoured by Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India at the ground. The match was drawn. Gavaskar's 90 in the Third Test at Ahmedabad saw him pass Geoff Boycott's Test world record of 8,114 career runs. In Madras, he compiled his 30th Test century in his 99th test match, with an unbeaten 236 which was the highest Test score by an Indian. It was his 30th Test century and third double century against the West Indies, propelling him to overtake Donald Bradman's 29 test centuries record. He had aggregated 505 at 50.50 for the series.

Achievements

• Gavaskar was the first Test cricket player to make over 10,000 runs.
• He held the record for the highest number of test centuries (34) before Sachin Tendulkar went past him in 2005.
• He has the highest runs (774) maker by a debutant.
• He has scored the most runs by any player in a series (774) against West Indies.
• He has the maximum no. of runs & centuries scored by a player against West Indies—2,749 runs & 13 centuries.
• He is the only cricketer to score 4 consecutive centuries at 2 venues—Port of Spain & Wankhede stadium.
• He is the only cricketer with 58-century partnership with 18 different players.
• He is a joint holder of the record for scoring centuries in both the test match innings on three occasions along with Australia's Ricky Ponting and David Warner.
• He also became the first Indian fielder (excluding wicket-keepers) to get over a hundred catches in Test cricket.
• He is the first Indian cricketer to carry his bat in test cricket.
• He was named one of the Wisden cricketers of the year in 1980.
• He has scored 127 not out in the Faisalabad Test in the year 1983 and became the 1st Indian to carry the bat in a test match.