Sunil Gavaskar is a former professional cricket player who now serves as a cricket commentator. He played for Bombay, now the Mumbai Cricket Team, from 1967-1982. He also played for a short time with Somerset.
Player Profile and Personal Life
Sunil Gavaskar was born on July 10, 1949, in Bombay, Province of Bombay, India. He stands 163 cm tall and he batted right-handed and was an opening batsman for most of his career.
He comes from a cricket-playing family and his uncle is Madhav Mantri. His son, Rohan Gavaskar, also played cricket professionally. So did his brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath.
Career
He started his professional career playing for Bombay. He also played for the Indian national team.
Gavaskar made his Test Cricket debut in March 1971 in a match against the West Indies. His ODI debut was in 1974 and was in a match against England.
In his Test debut, Gavaskar bowled 1 over and gave away 9 runs. He batted at the No. 2 position and scored 65 runs. In the 2nd innings, he again batted at the No. 2 position and was unbeaten on 67 inclusive of 7 boundaries.
India won this match by 7 wickets. Gavaskar played his last Test match from 13th March to 17th March 1987 at Bangalore against Pakistan.
In the 1st innings, he batted at the No. 1 position and scored 21 runs in 73 deliveries inclusive of 2 boundaries. In the 2nd innings, he scored 96 runs in 264 deliveries inclusive of 8 boundaries. Pakistan won this match by 16 runs.
Gavaskar played his 1st One Day International on July 1974 at Leeds against England. He batted at the No. 1 position and scored 28 runs in 35 deliveries inclusive of 3 boundaries and 1 sixer and was bowled by Arnold. England won this match by 4 wickets.
Gavaskar’s last One Day International was against England at Mumbai on 5th November 1987.
He batted at the No. 2 position and was bowled by DeFreitas when he had scored 4 runs in 7 deliveries inclusive of 1 boundary. England won this match by 35 runs.
Gavaskar played First Class cricket from the 1966-67 season to the 1987 season. He was active in List A cricket from the 1973-74 season to the 1987-88 season.
Gavaskar became famous as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time.
He has tremendous powers of concentration and he played with a near-perfect technique. As he had a very beautiful defense, his wickets were one of the most difficult to get. He could judge the line and length excellently and played with equal flair off the front and back foot.
Career Statistics
- Matches - 125 (Test), 108 (ODI), 348(FC), 151 (LA)
- Runs Scored - 10,122 (Test), 3,092(ODI), 25,834 (FC), 4,594 (LA)
- Batting Average - 51.12(Test), 35.13 (ODI), 51.46 (FC),36.17 (LA)
