More than 16 years after his retirement Sunil Gavaskar is still a superstar in Indian sport. A small man, he possessed immaculate technique and was able to concentrate for long innings. However, later in his career was also able to adapt his style to the need to score fast when required.
His playing career in figures is provided below:
Born: Bombay, 10-7-1949
Type: Right hand opening batsman and occasional right arm medium pace bowler.
First-class Teams: Vazir Sultan Colt's XI, Associated Cement Company (ACC) XI, U-Foam XI, Bombay, West Zone, Rest of India, Board President's XI, Indian Universities, Rest of the World and Somerset.
Tours undertaken:
Official (17): WI (70-71), Eng (71), Eng (74), NZ (75-76), WI (75-76), Aus (77-78), Pak (78-79), Eng (79), Aus+ (80-81), NZ+ (80-81), Eng+ (82), Pak+ (82-83), WI (82-83), Pak (84-85), SL (85-86), Aus (85-86), Eng (86).
Unofficial (4): Ceylon (70-71, with Indian Universities), Aus (71-72, with Rest of the World), SL (73-74, with the Indian team), Eng (87, with Rest of the World).
ODI tours (10): Eng (75, for WC), Eng (79, WC), Eng (83, WC), Sharjah+ (April, 84, Asia Cup), Aus+ (World Championships, 84-85), Sharjah (March, 85), Sharjah (Nov., 85), Sharjah (April, 86, Australasia Cup), Sharjah (Nov., 86), Sharjah (April, 87),
Unofficial (2): Sharjah+ (1981), Sharjah+ (1982)
Note: + denotes as captain
First-class debut: for Vazir Sultan Colt's XI v Dungarpur XI at Hyderabad, 1966-67 in the annual Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup tournament. He was then aged 17 years and 94 days.
Last first-class match: for Rest of the World v MCC in the MCC Bicentenary match at Lord's in 1988.
Highest f-c score: 340 for Bombay v Bengal at Bombay, 1981-82 (Ranji Trophy)
Best f-c bowling: 3-43 for Board President's XI v Ranji XI at Jamnagar, 1972-73 (Ranji Centenary match)
First-class career:
| M | Inns | No | Runs | Avg | HS | 100 | 50 | Ct | Balls | Runs | Wkts | Avge | Best | 5w | R/o |
| 348 | 563 | 61 | 25834 | 51.46 | 340 | 81 | 105 | 293 | 1953 | 1240 | 22 | 56.36 | 3-43 | - | 3.80 |
First-class career notes:
Made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bombay in 1969-70. Appeared up to 1986-87. Has scored 5335 runs (avg 70.18) in 67 Ranji Trophy matches. Has hit 20 hundreds, with a highest of 340 against Bengal in 1981-82. He has 14 other scores of fifties.
Appeared for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy from 1971-72 to 1986-87 in 22 matches scoring 1859 runs (avg 61.97). Has six hundreds to his credit (highest 228 v South Zone at Baroda, 1976-77) and eight fifties.
Played in 12 Irani Cup matches for Bombay and Rest of India teams from 1967-68 to 1984-85, scoring 733 runs (avg 40.72), with three hundreds.
Was selected to represent a Rest of the World team, led by Gary Sobers, in Australia in 1971-72. Bishen Bedi and Farokh Engineer were the other Indian members of the team.
Played one season of English county cricket for Somerset in 1980, scoring 686 runs (avg. 34.30) with two hundreds (highest: 155 not out).
His last first-class match came in England for the Rest of the World against the MCC in the MCC Bicentenary match at Lord's in 1988. His scores in this match were 188 and a duck!.
Has accumulated 25, 834 career runs and has 81 first-class hundreds - both remain as records by an Indian batman.
Test debut: v West Indies at Port of Spain, 1970-71. He was then aged 21 years and 240 days.
Last Test: v Pakistan at Bangalore, 1986-87
Highest Test score: 236 not out v West Indies at Madras, 1983-84.
Best Test bowling: 1-34 v Pakistan at Faisalabad, 1978-79
Test captaincy record: (from January 76 to February 85 : P47, W9, L8, D30).
Test career:
| M | Inns | No | Runs | Avg | HS | 100 | 50 | Ct | Balls | Runs | Wkts | Avge | Best | 5w | R/o |
| 125 | 214 | 16 | 10122 | 51.12 | 236* | 34 | 45 | 108 | 380 | 206 | 1 | 206.00 | 1-34 | - | 3.25 |
Test career notes:
Scored 65 and 67 not out on Test debut against West Indies at Port of Spain in 1971. Made 116 & 64 not out in the next match at Georgetown, followed by 1 & 117 not out at Bridgetown.
In the final Test at Port of Spain he finished the series with scores of 124 and 220.
His 774 runs in four Tests in his debut series against West Indies in 1971 is still a Test record by a debutant.
His unbeaten 236 against the West Indies at Madras in 1983 is the second highest highest individual score by an Indian in Tests. Interestingly, it was his only three-figure score of his Test career in the middle-order position - he batted at number four.
Was the first batsman in Test history to reach 9000 runs and 10000 runs.
Held the record for the highest Test run aggregate from November 1983 by surpassing England's Geoff Boycott's aggregate of 8114 runs, until Australian Allan Border bettered him in February, 1993.
Has 34 hundreds, including four doubles, to his credit - still the maximum scored by a Test batsman.
Has scored hundreds in each innings of a match on three separate occasions - the most by any batsmen in Test history.
Remains the only Indian batsman to carry his bat throughout an innings in Tests during his unbeaten 127 against Pakistan at Faisalabad in 1982-83.
His last Test match was against Pakistan at Bangalore in March, 1987, where he gave a supreme exhibition of temperament and technique lasting 323 minutes to score 96 runs.
When he ended his Test career he held the following world Test records: most matches (125), most consecutive matches (106), most runs (10122), most hundreds (34), most scores of 50 or more (79) and most hundred partnerships (58).
Has also captained India in 47 Test matches - still the maximum by an Indian, now held jointly with M Azharuddin.
ODI debut: v England at Leeds, 13-7-1974
Last ODI: v England at Mumbai, 5-11-1987
Highest ODI score: 103 not out v New Zealand at Nagpur, 31-10-1987
Best ODI bowling: 1-10 v Pakistan at Sialkot, 13-10-1978
ODI captaincy record: (from December 1980 to March 1985 : P37, W14, L21, NR2)
ODI career:
| M | Inns | No | Runs | Avg | HS | 100 | 50 | Ct | Balls | Runs | Wkts | Avge | Best | 5w | R/o |
| 108 | 102 | 14 | 3092 | 35.14 | 103* | 1 | 27 | 22 | 20 | 25 | 1 | 25.00 | 1-10 | - | 7.50 |
ODI career notes:
In the inaugural World Cup match he set a dubious record by scoring an unbeaten 36 runs having batted the entire 60 overs against England at Lord's in June, 1975, although he actually faced only 174 balls out of the 360 balls faced by the entire team.
He however has the distinction of becoming the first Indian batsman to reach the run aggregates of 1000, 2000 and 3000 runs in ODIs.
Although he has scored only one ODI hundred, which came in this penultimate match (his 107th) of his ODI career, he did achieve it in style. During the 1987 World Cup against New Zealand at Nagpur he blasted an unbeaten 103 in just 88 balls with three sixes and 10 fours, reaching his 100 in just 85 balls!
His finished his ODI career with a fairly decent career strike-rate of 62.28 runs per 100 balls.
He led India in two ODI tournament victories - the inaugural Asia Cup at Sharjah in April, 1984 and in the World Championships of Cricket in Australia in March, 1985.
