To start the enthralling tale of Sunil Gavaskar’s impressive cricket career, it will be appropriate to say ‘Whoever pursues fame and greatness, they flee from him and whoever shuns greatness, it comes after him’. With his style of play, the Mumbai-born batsman set a benchmark that encourages Test cricketers across the globe till today.

On this day, the former Indian captain and master batsman Gavaskar made his debut in Test cricket. The right-hander was the cricketing star of 70s and 80s and became first cricketer to score 10000 Test runs. Serving cricket-lovers with his fine style of play, Gavaskar scored 10122 runs in 125 Test matches.

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The set of enormous techniques used and invented by Gavaskar, highlighted him in the world map of cricket. The opening batsman was certainly the best cricketer of his time as he possessed a beautiful defence that was unbeatable by both spinners and pacers.

On his Test debut against West Indies on 6th March 1971, Gavaskar scored 65 runs to give India a strong start in their 1st innings. The batting legend continued the momentum as he scored 67 runs in the second innings. Resultantly, India outclassed West Indies by seven wickets in that match.

Carved a way for Sachin

During his days of yore, the elegant Indian opener set a record for maximum number of test centuries, which remained unbeaten for 20 years. Then in December of 2005, still emerging then, the god of cricket – Sachin Tendulkar surpassed the little master when he smashed his 35th Test century.

Earlier in the same year, Tendulkar had outshined Gavaskar’s collection of test runs as he reached 10123 runs in his 123rd Test match. “There is a little boy in Tendulkar who wants to keep playing. That spirit keeps him going. It’s absolutely incredible how he keeps going,” Gavaskar said in past, while describing Sachin Tendulkar.

Feature photo courtesy: Cricinfo