Indian Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has celebrated his 72nd birthday on 10th July 2021. On this occasion birth day wishes were flowing through social media from his hardcore fans in India and across the world.
Sunil Gavaskar was one of the best cricket players in the world. He was the first batsman to score more than ten thousand runs in the international test cricket.
On 28th December 1983, Sunil Gavaskar has broken Don Bradman’s world record of 29 test centuries that he has taken in just 52 test matches.
While Sunil Gavaskar was playing for India, West Indies cricket team was dominating in the world cricket with their all-round performance. Their fast bowlers were always been fearsome and they were ruthlessly taking their opponent batsmen’s wicket easily.
But the determined Sunil Gavaskar never scared/concerned about the fast bowling aggression of their bowlers and he fearlessly smashed 13 centuries against West Indies with an overall average of 65.
Those days opening the test match innings and hanging on the wicket for a longer period was a toughest job for any opening batsman. But the highly skilled and the determined Sunil Gavaskar was handling the deadly fast bowlers in a lighter manner. He was always concentrating on piling up the score as much as he can and tried to ease the pressure for other Indian batsmen to bat without any problems.
During his cricketing era, he has faced lot of fearsome fast bowlers such as Joel Garner, Malcom Marshall, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson without wearing helmet from their fast bowler friendly pitches.
Sunil Gavaskar’s best batting technique to face the fast bowlers was widely admired by the cricket pundits across the world. He faced worst ever multi prolonged fast bowling attack during his decade long cricketing era.
Sunil Gavaskar was the main instrumental in chasing the West Indies team’s test match target of 406 runs. Sunil Gavaskar’s 102 runs and the G.R. Viswanath’s 112 runs has immensely helped in winning test match against West Indies.
He has not only broken Donald Bradman’s 29 Test centuries record but also created another record of taking 34 test centuries. He was able to keep this record almost two decades till the same was being broken by Sachin Tendulkar in 2005.
Considering his vast contributions towards the world cricket, he was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. He was also inducted in the ICC Hall of Fame in the year 2009.
Altogether Sunil Gavaskar played 125 test matches and 108 One Day Internationals played for India. During this period he has taken 10122 test runs and 3092 ODI runs.
Sunil Gavaskar was completely different from other Indian players who had started playing for the country before him.
His is widely regarded as one of the finest Test batsmen of all time like other cricketing legend such as Sir Don Bradman, Allan Border, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.
