1. 5 Reasons Why Gavaskar Remains
The Greatest Indian Test Batsman
Ever
Sudhir Bisht
sudhir_bisht@rediffmail.com

2. Sunny Days are here again!
• One of the most respected cricketers of all generations, Sunil Gavaskar, has been
named by the Supreme Court to be the man who would be at the helm of affairs
of BCCI, till the IPL-7 is concluded.
• For the young generation that has watched the great test batsmen of the modern
era, I would like to say that Sunil Gavaskar was truly the First Batting Star of India.
• There was a time, during the eighties, when anything that Gavaskar did, would go
on to become a world record. However Sunil Gavaskar’s glory isn’t just in the
records that he still holds or the ones that he held until they were surpassed by
the players of the next generation.
• Here are five reasons why Sunil Gavaskar will remain one of the Best Test
batsman of Indian cricket. He is there, right up at the top with Sachin Tendulkar
and Rahul Dravid.
• And if I may be allowed to indulge in a bit of plain
speaking, Gavaskar is the Best Test batsman India has ever
produced

3. Let’s look at 12 Top scorers in Test
Cricket for India
Sr.
No
Name Batting
Position
Test
Matches
played
Active
Test
Playing
Years
Test
Runs
scored
No. of
Test
Hundred
Test
average
Debut
Yr-
Last
Year
1 Sunil
Gavaskar
Opener 125 16 10,122 34 51.12 1971-
1987
2 Dilip
Vengsarkar
No 3 116 15 6,868 17 42.13 1976-
1991
3 Gundappa
Viswanath
No 4 91 14 6,080 14 41.93 1969-
1983
4 Mohinder
Amarnath
No3, 4 &
6
69 19 4,378 11 42.5 1969-
1988
5 Mohammad
Azharuddin
No 5 & 6 99 15 6,215 22 45.03 1985-
2000
6 Navjot
Sidhu
Opener 51 16 3,202 9 42.13 1983-
1999
7 Sachin
Tendulkar
No 4 200 24 15,921 51 53.78 1989-
2013
8 Rahul
Dravid
No 3 164 16 13,288 36 52.31 1996-
2012
9 V V S
Laxman
No 5, 6 &
Opener
134 16 8,781 17 45.37 1996-
2012
10 Sourav
Ganguly
No 5, 6, 4,
3
113 12 7,212 16 42.17 1996-
2008
11 Virender
Sehwag
Opener 104 12 8,586 23 49.34 2001-
2013
12 Gautam
Gambhir
Opener 54 8 4,021 9 44.19 2004-
2012

4. The 12 top Indian Test batsmen from
1970 onwards
• The table in the earlier slide is a list of the top 12 test batsmen
of India.
• 4 out of 12 belong to the Gavsakar era. They are; the great
artiste Gundappa Viswanath, the gritty Mohinder Amarnath,
the flamboyant Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunny Gavaskar himself.
• 6 belong to the Tendulkar era. The ‘wall’ called Rahul Dravid,
the ‘Very, Very Special’ Laxman, the elegant southpaw
Ganguly, the ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ Virender Sehwag, the gritty
Gautam Gambhir and the ultimate batsman of all times,
Sachin Tendulkar himself.
• The remaining 2 have straddled along the two eras. They are
the fearless Navjot Siddhu and the man with the silken touch
called Mohammad Azharuddin

5. 1. Gavaskar always carried the burden of
his entire team on his shoulders
• A look at the table above would reveal that, except for Vishwanath (till 1983) and
Vengsarkar from 1976- 1987, there weren’t many batsmen who came even close
to matching Sunil Gavaskar’s consistency as far as run-making was concerned.
Mohinder Amarnath was another gutsy performer who played a few good series
but apart from that there weren’t many players whom Indian team could rely upon
as far as batting was concerned.
• Contrast this with the Tendulkar era when players like the great Tendulkar, Dravid,
Laxman and Ganguly played a great role in complimenting each other. In fact the
period from 2000 to 2012 was the golder period for Indian batting.
• The famous Four (Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman) were in sublime form and
were joined by the most formidable pair of opening partners India ever produced.
The ‘Jodi’ of Sehwag and Gambhir had started giving the best opening partnerships
for India.
• In contrast to the great batsmen of Tendulkar era, the Gavaskar era was so much
dependent upon the great Sunil Gavaskar to extricate Indian batting from habitual
collapse.

6. 2. Gavaskar always opened the
innings for India
• It is one thing to score runs when the shine has gone off the new ball and quite
another to score when the cherry is still glistening red in colour.
• Sunil Gavaskar was always the brave heart who had to open the batting for India,
innings after innings; series after series for almost 16 years.
• History is replete with great players who were asked to open for India but they
soon retreated to the safe cocoon of middle order batting.
• Even one of the most loyal servants of Indian cricket, VV S Laxman tried his luck at
the opening slot but after opening for India for 25 innings, he had to go back to
the lower order. Laxman could average only about 26 runs as on opening batsman,
though he did score a brilliant 167 against Australia at Sydney in 2000.
• Another thing to remember here that someone like Sehwag, who would go down
as one of the best opening batsmen the game has ever produced, had the good
fortune of having Gambhir as a reliable partner. Gavaskar never had the luxury of
opening with a partner who was half as good as Gambhir. The romantic aura of
Kris Srikkanth and the dour image of Chetan Chauhan notwithstanding.
• Sehwag was always free to play his natural attacking game as he knew that the
team had players like Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, Ganguly following him in the lower
order. Contrast this with Gavaskar who always played with a cautious realization
that his failure could lead to unmanageable pressure on Gundappa Viswanath or
Vengsarkar.

7. 3. Gavaskar never played with the
protection of a helmet
• How many modern batsmen can face the pace quartet of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel
Garner and Colin Croft, without wearing a helmet? Gavaskar did just that.
• And he did it with aplomb. Wearing just a homemade skull-cap, Sunny Gavaskar was never ever
terrified by the ferocity of attack. It was such an extraordinary sight to see a diminutive batsman,
cut, slice and straight-drive the six foot tall giants into complete submission. One should keep in
mind that all these bowlers could bowl at more than 95 miles an hour.
• It is not just the pace of the West Indies greats that Sunny Gavaskar blunted with his bat. He also
negotiated the vicious spin bowling of Abdul Qadir and John Emburey with equal ease.
• I know that the batsmen of Tendulkar era can’t be blamed for batting with their helmets on their
heads. This was a new development of the game and even Gavaskar, if he were to be born in the
Tendulkar era, would have preferred wearing a helmet. But this logic can’t take the credit away
from the intrepid Sunil Gavaskar who faced the wrath of Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Dennis
Lillee without the basic safety equipment.
• As someone pointed out that the modern day batsmen have no fear of fast bowling. They wear
helmet, much better arm guards, robust thigh guard and often times a chest protector. Their gloves
and pads are so much more padded that they look virtually impregnable.
• Did Sunil Gavaskar or Vishwanath enjoy any such luxury? No. They simply relied upon their God
gifted hand-eye coordination.

8. 4. Gavaskar carried the added
burden of being the Captain
• Sunil Gavaskar captained India in 47 test matches and had a success record of 9
wins against 8 losses. While Gavaskar was a modest success as a Captain and it is
often said that under him the Indian team played to draw and not to win, it is also
a fact that he was always under the double burden of being the Captain of the
team as well as its Best and most dependable batsman.
• Mohammad Azaharuddin or Sourav Ganguly, both Captains of Indian test sides
didn’t have to carry this extra burden.
• The weight of captaining the team as well as being its Best batsman weighed so
heavily on the shoulders of the great Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid that they
preferred to relinquish the burden of captaincy to concentrate on their batting
Gavaskar’s record as a Captain
Tests as Captain Wins as Captain Losses as Captain
Sunil Gavaskar 47 09 08
Mohammad Azharuddin 47 14 14
Sourav Ganguly 49 21 13

9. 5. There was no restrictions on number of
bouncers per over during Sunil’s days
• The life of Indian batsmen became so much easy
after 1991 when the bouncer rule came into play.
No bowler is allowed to bowl more than two
short-pitch deliveries. The batsmen like Sunil
Gavaskar had no such rule to save them from the
merciless pace bowlers who hounded them with
any number of bouncers.
• And because the batsmen today wear helmets,
they even don’t mind if the short-pitched stuff
slides past their helmets.

10. So Isn’t Gavaskar the Best Test
Batsman India has ever produced?
• The answer is both Yes, but some critics can still say No.
• ‘Yes’ because of the five reasons listed above and ‘No’ because of the fact that Rahul Dravid
and Sachin Tendulkar didn’t invent the helmet; they didn’t promulgate the ‘No-more-than-2-
bouncer-per-over’ rule and they were not responsible for being born in an era when they
played far more freely than Gavaskar could play.
• And most importantly, both Dravid and Sachin have better test average than Sunil Gavaskar
has.
• However their slightly better average, 53.78 for Sachin and 52.31 for Dravid, is neutralized
by the fact that Gavaskar opened the innings for India. And neither of them is better than
Gavaskar as I believe that a score of 75 by an opener is as good as a century by the middle
order batsman.
• A game of cricket is much beyond the numbers. Statistics can never explain why the 97 by
Gundappa Viswanath against the West Indies at Chennai 1974–75 is considered by many
purists as the Best innings ever played by any Indian batsman.
• Viswanath scored 97 not out, out of a total of 190, against a bowling attack that included
Andy Roberts. The Wisden 100 has ranked it as one of the best innings of all time.
• And just as a great player like Pele can’t be compared to the later generation’s Maradona, the
batsmen of different eras can simply not be compared.

11. Wishing Gavaskar the very Best in his
role as Interim President of BCCI
• Sunil Gavaskar seamlessly slipped into the role of commentator,
almost immediately after he retired from Test cricket. He has
always been a reluctant administrator. He has never hankered
after any administrative position. He has never ever even sought
the job of India’s Coach, even though it is an established fact
that someone like Sunny Gavaskar, with a mind as astute as his
own, would always be a successful coach. He has the credentials
and he has the vision.
• Here’s wishing Sunil Gavaskar all the very Best in his new role as
the Interim President of BCCI.
• The Supreme Court of our country has chosen him for the new
role. It takes a venerated institution to recognize another
revered one. Here’s Three Cheers for the Honourable Supreme
Court and the Right Honourable Sunil Gavaskar

12. Sudhir Bisht is an author and a columnist. He
can be reached at
sudhir_bisht@rediffmail.com &
sudhir_bisht@hotmail.com