Sunil Gavaskar and his career's 10 magnificent stats

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The Little Master – Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was just 5ft 5in tall when he debuted for India in 1971. That era was regarded as the most fearless bowling period where the tall West Indies bowlers were just unstoppable and unafraid of bowling deadly bodyline bouncers.

The Caribbean island team was ruling the 22 yards cricket pitch. Gavaskar was definitely at the disadvantage side while facing these bowlers with the height he got. But what made him different from the other batsmen was his cool and ruthless batting technique.

He remained best opening batsman in the world for many years. His teammates called him “the little master” and that he was indeed. By the end of his career, Gavaskar became the leading run-scorer (10122) with more Test centuries (34) than anybody else.

Here are 10 such stats of Gavaskar’s career that defines the run machine of 70s and 80s:

1 - Sunil Gavaskar is the first batsman in Test history to cross 10,000 runs. His run tally is still the 11th highest in Tests.

2 - Sunil Gavaskar holds the record for the most runs scored in a debut Test series. He scored 774 in just four Tests against the West Indies in 1971. Jamaican George Headley is the only other batsman to score over 700 runs in a debut Test series.

3 - Sunil Gavaskar is the first batsman to score 30 hundreds in Test history. He scored 34 in all, which is has since been bettered only by five batsmen - Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Ponting, Dravid and Sangakkara. Gavaskar was the first cricketer to break Donald Bradman's record of 29 Test centuries.

4 - Sunil Gavaskar is the first of the two batsmen to score a hundred and a double hundred in a single Test of a debut series. Lawrence Rowe later emulated Gavaskar’s feat.

5 - Sunil Gavaskar’s 220 at age 21 years and 277 days against the West Indies at Queen’s Park Oval in 1971 made him the youngest double centurion in an overseas Test. He broke the earlier record of Don Bradman, who was 21 years and 304 days when he scored 254 against England in 1930.

6 - Sunil Gavaskar is the first of two batsmen to score centuries in each inning of a Test thrice - Ricky Ponting is the other. But unlike Ponting, one of Gavaskar’s twin hundreds in a Test was double century.

7 - Sunil Gavaskar is the first batsman to twice score three hundreds in successive innings. Subsequently, Aravinda de Silva equaled that mark and Kumar Sangakkara went one better.

8 - Sunil Gavaskar remains the first and only batsman to have scored double hundreds in the first, second, third, and fourth innings of Tests.

9 - Sunil Gavaskar is the first batsman to score 1000 runs or more in a calendar year on four occasions.

10 - Sunil Gavaskar has the maximum number of runs & centuries scored by a player against West Indies (2749 runs & 13 centuries).

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Edited by Staff Editor