🏏Sunil Gavaskar

📖In detail

Whether on the front foot or the back, he used the crease very well, and every stroke was textbook. When batsmen around the world feared the West Indian fast bowlers, he scored 13 centuries and 2,749 runs against them. He also scored more than 2,000 Test runs each against England and Pakistan, who too had top-class pace attacks.

His Test career began brilliantly: on the historic 1971 tour of the West Indies he scored 774 runs in four matches, including four centuries, a record for a debut series that still stands. His highest Test score, 236, also came against the West Indies.

Born in Mumbai on 10 July 1949, Gavaskar was the first batsman to score 10,000 Test runs. He once held the records for most Test runs and most Test centuries, both now held by another Mumbai great, Sachin Tendulkar. He scored 10,122 runs in 125 Tests at an average of 51.12, with 34 centuries, and 3,092 runs in 108 ODIs. He has more than 25,000 first-class runs.