Sunil Gavaskar Records: India legend Sunil Gavaskar is celebrating his 72nd birthday today (July 10). On this great occasion Times of Sports likes to recall the records the legend did for his country.
Many cricket players including Sachin Tendulkar have named Sunil Gavaskar as their cricket idol. The former Indian skipper influenced many younger generation cricketers through his records which seems to be a milestone for many modern era cricketers.
Sunil Gavaskar Debut
Test
- Debut: West Indies v India at Port of Spain, 6–10 March 1971
- Last Match: India v Pakistan at Bangalore, 13–17 March 1987
ODI
- Debut: England v India at Leeds, 13 July 1974
- Last Match: India v England at Bombay, 5 November 1987
Sunil Gavaskar Records
Sunil Gavaskar scripts many glorious records with the bat during the tougher era of cricket. Following are the list of records scripted by legendary Sunil Gavaskar:
First batsman to score 10000 runs in Test cricket
- Sunil Gavaskar was the first cricketer who scored 10,000 Test runs, a feat that was unimaginable at that time.
- The history was created in Ahmedabad in March 1987.
- The right-handed batsman achieved the milestone against Pakistan in his penultimate Test match.
- Gavaskar finished his Test career with 10122 runs.
Highest runs (774) scored in a series by a debutant cricketer
- In 1971 Gavaskar played his first Test series against the mighty West Indies team.
- In the 8 innings that Gavaskar batted, he amassed 774 runs at a staggering average of 154.80 that included 4 hundred and 3 fifties.
- He also scored a double century and a century in the same Test in the series.
The first batsman to go past the 29 centuries scored by Don Bradman
- On December 28, 1983, Gavaskar created history and scored his 30th Test match ton.
- He went past Sir Don Bradman’s tally of 29 hundred and became the leading century make in Test cricket.
- He scored a total of 34 centuries in his Test career which stood as a record for more than two long decades.
- In 2005, Sachin Tendulkar eventually scored his 35th Test match 100 and went past his idol.
Only Indian batsman to play 100 consecutive Test matches
- Gavaskar holds the elite record of playing most consecutive Test matches for Team India.
- In fact, he is the only Indian to play more than 100 Tests back-to-back.
- Gavaskar, who made his Test debut in 1971, started his streak in 1975. The streak ended just a month before his final Test match.
- He played 106 consecutive Tests during those 12 years and remained a pivotal member of Team India.
Other Records of Sunil Gavaskar
- Only Indian to score hundreds in both innings of same Test 3 times
- He also holds the record of scoring the maximum number of runs (2,749) and centuries (13) against the West Indies.
- He is the only cricketer to score 4 consecutive centuries at 2 venues– Port of Spain & Wankhede Stadium.
- Fastest Indian to score 5000 Test runs
- He is the only cricketer with 58 Test century partnerships with 18 different players.
- He is the first Indian fielder (excluding wicket-keepers) to bag over a hundred catches in Test cricket.
- He is a joint holder of the record for scoring centuries in both innings of a Test Match on three occasions along with Australia’s Ricky Ponting and David Warner.
- He is the first Indian cricketer to carry his bat in test cricket, with a score of 127 not out in the Faisalabad Test in the year 1983.
- He was named one of the Wisden cricketers of the year in 1980.
Awards and Honours
- In 1980, Gavaskar received the Padma Bhushan award.
- On 22 December 1994, Gavaskar was sworn in as Bombay Sheriff—an honorary post, for a year, at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai
- In 1996, The Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been instituted in his co-honor.
- In 2003, he became the first and till now the only Indian to have delivered a MCC Spirit Of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture.
- On 21 November 2012, Gavaskar was conferred with BCCI’s prestigious Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award at the BCCI Annual Awards Function 2011-12.
- On 15 October 2017, Gavaskar inaugurated a cricket field in Louisville in the state of Kentucky in the United States, thus making it the first international sporting facility named after an Indian sportsperson.
